Category Archives: comedy

260: Justin Halpern, The Uptown Girl Game



This week’s FilmDrunk Frotcast really has everything: big name guests, insightful interviews, original bits, clever pop culture analysis, engaging hosts, and really just a lot of heart. Comedian Matt Lieb joins FilmDrunk’s Vince Mancini and Brendan in the Frotquarters, with Shit My Dad Says/I Suck At Girls author Justin Halpern joining via Skype.

2:35 – Matt refuses to believe that Al Pacino is in Jack & Jill. Brendan and Matt do dueling Al Pacino/Adam Sandler impressions

3:45 – The “Uptown Girl” talent redux, where Matt Lieb can turn any song into “Uptown Girl.” Brendan hadn’t played before.

8:05 – I attempt to get Matt Lieb to “Uptown Girl” the top 100 songs, before quickly realizing we only know about three of them.

8:42 – Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” gets Uptown Girl’d.

9:40 – “Uptown Funk” gets Uptown Girl’d

13:00 – Justin Halpern joins us via Skype.

17:15 – Big question for Justin as someone who has worked on multiple sitcoms: Have multi-cam sitcoms started mixing the studio audience louder? Why are studio audiences so much more present in multi-cam comedies?

23:00 – The phenomenon of studio audience members saying weird things during shows and how much time it takes to mix them out.

26:50 – The strange phenomenon of laugh-track shows being so much more popular than non in syndication.

33:30 – Justin’s story about Robert Downey Jr. on the set of Due Date.

37:30 – Justin’s Mark Wahlberg encounter, about how Wahlberg initially hated ‘The Departed,’ and called it ‘Gayfellas.’

46:19 – We read some of Nikki Finke’s hard-boiled Hollywood insider fiction.

54:00 – Brendan describes Michael Jordan getting owned by middle schoolers, and how that’s Brendan’s greatest fear.

1:00:00 – We discuss Miles Teller’s Esquire profile. Is Miles Teller the new Shia Labeouf? Discuss.

1:06:18 – We read your emails and play your voicemails, including a listener who wonders about shoplifting the pootie from a single mother that’s a stripper, and another about Dave Matthews Band, which leads us into a discussion about music nerd rock.


259: Cecil the Lion, True Detective with Joe Sinclitico



Great show this week, as our guest, comedian Joe Sinclitico either makes or ruins my show with his audible vaping. Matt Lieb and Bret were also in the Frotquarters to talk Cecil the Lion, Woody Allen, True Detective, and horrible press tour interviews. Also, Matt Lieb introduces his new segment, the “Uptown Girl Game.”
2:34 – Matt Lieb’s incredible “Uptown Girl” talent. Matt Lieb can turn ANY SONG into Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl.” It’s really quite something.
9:16 – Cecil the Lion and the cyber lynch mob. “Yeah, but somebody has to go in the wicker man, and I’m glad it’s this guy.” -Bret
23:30 – Ave Maria becomes Uptown Girl. Matt Lieb has the voice of an angel.
24:18 – I try to explain Woody Allen’s “Irrational Man” to the frot crew. 
33:40 – Joe Sinclitico calls in. We listen to him vaping.
37:37 – We talk about this season of True Detective and how much we like it and how people that keep whining about it can suck it.
38:50 – Joe Sinclitico was apparently making tea.
53:00 – Joe also has some thoughts about Cecil the Lion. 
1:05:00 – Cara Delavigne’s awful interviewers and the trouble with trying to keep up with psychotically caffeinated morning show hosts on awkward press tours.
1:12:20 – My OTHER favorite awkward press tour interview, the Australian Amy Schumer interview that feels like a Christopher Guest sketch. 
1:15:28 – We bring Joe back. It was a mistake.
1:17:47 – We talk about Southpaw and the trouble with boxing movies.
1:20:00 – We answer a question from the emails about hooking up at weddings. 


Frotcast 258: Guest Matt Ufford Talks Adam Sandler, Gawker Drama, and PISTOL DRONE



SB Nation video (and text!) personality Matt Ufford guest stars this week (with Matt Lieb and Vince Mancini) as we talk about Pixels/Adam Sandler, and this week in pop culture, including Gawker’s Geithner drama, getting to the bottom of Taylor Swift’s latest beef, and our Pistol Drone for President campaign. Plus, your emails.
00:00 – Matt Lieb’s wonderful comedy bit about electric skateboards.2:00 – PIXELS. I describe the plot for Ufford. “I would not have come on this week if I knew this was what I was in for.”6:30 – We talk about Ufford’s tweet about Adam Sandler’s ‘Fart Vacation,’ and what it says about Adam Sandler movies that some people thought this was a real movie.8:43 – GAWKER DRAMA. We talk about Max Read and Tommy Craggs resigning from Gawker after Gawker took down the Geithner post, and what would have to happen for us to resign in protest from a job we otherwise liked (this from a current Vox employee and an Uproxx employee).19:30 – The way the current advertising system creates an environment that produces the kinds of shitty, click-bait content everyone hates, even the people writing it. 20:50 – Matt Lieb finds his new least favorite Gawker post, “the bravery of Judd Apatow knows no bounds,” a snarky takedown of Judd Apatow’s Cosby impression. Ufford and I explain the inside-baseball factors that cause a post like that to get written, and Lieb and I discuss the viability of Cosby jokes.33:36 – We breakdown my new favorite Amy Schumer thinkpiece, from the Guardian, about how Amy Schumer is now *too* successful, and how that could be “potentially problematic” for her. And society. Or something.44:22 – PISTOL DRONE FOR PRESIDENT! Ufford and Bret’s new social media campaign48:30 – THE TAYLOR SWIFT BEEFDOWN. We try to parse Katy Perry’s incredibly obtuse tweet, and the Matts help us get to the root of the now-legendary Katy Perry/Taylor Swift/Nicki Minaj beef triangle. “I used to know calculus!” sighs Ufford. 58:26 – Your emails. Starting with the guy whose friend named his son “Revin,” continuing with the guy whose on-again-off-again girlfriend is banging her platonic friend on a European island somewhere and how he should feel about that.


256: Ted 2, The Trials Of Jared Fogel And Amy Schumer



This week on the Frotcast, the world’s best pop culture podcast! Brendan is back in-studio, joining Matt Lieb and Vince Mancini, with guest comedian Torio Van Grol. Topics:-Matt Lieb’s Breakup. Snuggly Rock has crumbled and winter is coming. Matt joins all the dating sites and we discuss the merits of each, from J-Swype (that’s the Jewish Tinder) to FarmersOnly and AshleyMadison.-Dogfight, the backyard brawling documentary from the director of The U. -Jared from Subway’s child porn. Do we hope it’s true or untrue?-Ted 2 – Matt, Vince, and Torio all saw it, and we agreed the funniest bit in it was the stoners in the back row laughing like Beavis & Butthead at all the worst jokes.- Torio is now a Segway tour guide and tells us about an old lady who fell. – The Amy Schumer thinkpiece industry and the internet science of exposing secret racists. “I saw your secret heart!” -Matt Lieb- License to Shill: Why selling out seems like it must be awesome.-Your emails, including how the Frotcast ruined one listener’s relationship with his father.


255: Oliver Stone’s Snowden, Aaron Sorkin’s Jobs, HBO, and Deaf People’s Orgasms



First of all… DON’T FREAK OUT! I opened this week’s show with about a minute of Matt Lieb’s stand up. It’s something I’ve been wanting to experiment with. After that, it’s a regular Frotcast, with Matt Lieb, Bret, and Vince, live in studio. 
This week’s topics!-What do deaf people sound like when they orgasm? (Don’t ask how we got on this subject)-The ‘rules’ of comedy and thinkpiece culture.-HBO – Game of Thrones and that BIG TWIST in True Detective-The new ‘Snowden’ movie and Oliver Stone.-Danny Boyle’s ‘Steve Jobs’ and Aaron Sorkin in general. (Quoth Bret: “In the first draft of all Aaron Sorkin’s scripts, the female characters are all named ‘MY EX-WIFE.'”)-The Startup Castle gets evicted


Frotcast 253: Inside Out, Jerry Seinfeld, Rachel Dolezal, with Laremy



With Bret and Matt Lieb joining Vince in the Frotquarters, we open this week with a lengthy, or possibly girthy, discussion of Lebron James’ penis. Laremy joins via Skype to discuss Pixar’s latest, Inside Out, which we both saw. Since we’ve been off for two weeks, we discuss Jerry Seinfeld’s now-infamous “Political Correctness is killing comedy” comment (words Jerry Seinfeld didn’t actually say), and Matt’s perspective as a fellow Jewish comedian (I’m required by law to mention that Matt is Jewish at least once in every post). After that we talk Rachel Dolezal (because who ISN’T talking Rachel Dolezal, am I right??), people whining about Game of Thrones, and Jurassic World. 


Special Episode: Dude Bro Party Massacre III



Vince is down in LA for a special edition Frotcast with Michael E. Peter, Michael Rousselet, and Alec Owen of 5-Second Films, whose crowd-funded magnum opus, Dude Bro Party Massacre III, for which they raised more than $200,000, plays the LA Film Festival this week. We talk about how you make a movie with 12-15 people involved in the creative process and how they scored all their magnificent cameos, from Larry King to Patton Oswalt to Andrew WK. We also discuss how much Larry King got paid ($8, seriously) and what Andrew WK calls his “character supplies” (mostly Doritos and Four Loko). Enjoy.


252: Kung Fury, Chet Haze, Entourage, Hot Girls Wanted, and Love and Mercy



I know it’s probably not why people listen to the Frotcast, but this week, we talk about movies! Lots of them. We open with Kung Fury, now free on YouTube, which we all watched, and mostly enjoyed. After that, I discuss my experience seeing the Entourage movie, which organically leads us into Chet Haze’s spirited and similarly tone-deaf defense of using the N-word, aka “N-Star” (including a digression into Brent Weinbach’s “Gangsta Party Line”). After that, we discuss the Rashida Jones-produced Netflix documentary about amateur teen porn, Hot Girls Wanted. Which felt very local news scare piece to me. (“It’s CALLED amateur porn, and YOUR HOT TEEN could be doing it…”). From there, Matt and I discuss Love & Mercy, the Brian Wilson biopic starring Paul Dano and John Cusack, which Matt is well qualified to critique as a Brian Wilson freak and Beach Boys scholar. Should a biopic just be a dramatic retelling of what you already know or should it try to innovate? Finally, we finish up with your emails, including a bitter script reader’s take on “the two wolves story,” another reader’s rank of the frot crew by f*ckability, and yet another question about the best way to wipe your ass. Frot on and enjoy.   


251: San Andreas, Kaseem Bentley Roasts The Frotcast



This week on the Frotcast, aka Comedians With Microphones Talking Movies, I talk about San Andreas (my review),
a film about a very muscular, chesty man’s love for his chesty wife and
their busty daughter in a time of earthquakes. Bret continues his
journey to shilldom (“I get #horny for #brands!”) and Matt Lieb tells us
about his latest commercial, and why Alexandra Daddario is so
attractive it makes him angry. About 30 minutes in, Kaseem Bentley,
(SF Weekly Best of Award Winner for “Racial Humor You Don’t Feel Guilty
Laughing At” and one of the Bay Area’s “Top 5 Comedians to Watch”
according to the San Jose Mercury News) drops by. Kaseem spends the
first 10 minutes or so making fun of me, my friends, and my past
relationships, then dives down the rabbit hole of obscure San Francisco
comedy references. At one point, he and Matt Lieb have a frank
discussion about the existence of God. I dunno, man. Meanwhile, I try to
ask him questions about his parents being in the Nation of Islam and
the Black Panthers, what the deal is with bean pie, and how it was he
came to be San Francisco’s only insult comic/social worker. As always,
Kaseem is really interesting in the brief moments you can get him to
stop being hilarious.


250: Game of Thrones Rape and Mad Max: Fury Road Feminism



Welcome to another episode of what we like to call “Comedians with Microphones Talking Movies.” This week on the Frotcast, our guest is Laremy Legel from Film.Com (and the upcoming movie ‘Lightweight’), and the topics are rape scenes in Game of Thrones and feminism in Mad Max: Fury Road. But before we get to that, we’ve got an update on the “Startup Castle,” which you may remember from last week as the folks behind the world’s most pathos-drenched roommate ad. It turns out, the guy who “founded” (aka rented) the Startup Castle is a former Chippendales dancer and castmember on a pirate reality show. Neat! After that we get to Game of Thrones, and whether departing from the books has made it open season on criticisms of being gratuitous/rapey/predictable. We move onto Mad Max: Fury Road and the great (misguided) “Is It Feminist??” debate. Also, we discuss Armond White’s review. Finally, we finish things off with your emails, including a question about honk shaming and a Smash Mouth story. Enjoy, and please continue Frotting.