Category Archives: TV

Top Chef Frotcast Post-Show S1E6, ‘Guess Who…’ w David J. Roth

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David J. Roth from Defector and The Distraction joins Vince and Joey this week to discuss season 1, episode 6 of Top Chef, “Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner,” with guest judge Ted Allen!

This episode could’ve been alternately titled “Miguel’s Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” as it started with Miguel feeling like the whole world was against him, then he put Palmolive in the dishwasher, and then he put salt instead of sugar in his dessert, and then he ended up at judge’s table, and finally he finished things off by calling Tiffani “A snake. SSSSSS” one of the all-time most memorable Top Chef trailer clips.

Dave cried red-faced into his wine glass and lots of other stuff happened too, but the important thing is that Andrea is finally gone. My God, it feels like it took forever, didn’t it? it seemed like someone else was about to get sent home, but Andrea, who thought she was above this competition all along, basically decided to fall on her sword instead, making up some dumb bullshit about green onions on her way out. Much like Joe Biden, the best thing she did was to leave the stage. Good riddance, Andrea! Have fun pooping!

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Frotcast Top Chef Post-Show S1E3: ‘Nasty Delights’

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Joey and Vince are back talking about season 1 of Top Chef. This week we’re talking about season one, episode 3 (103), “Nasty Delights,” which really is a fantastic Top Chef episode and quite possibly a big reason we still have this show 21 seasons later. Stephen Asprinio deserves his place in the Top Chef hall of fame. All-time great reality show character. The chefs had to make octopus, and then they had to make monkfish for little kids. Crazy how this episode turned out, because some people who went on to become food TV royalty probably should’ve gone home this episode. Justice for Brian! (Or, maybe not, maybe he deserved it).

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Top Chef Frotcast Post-Show: Amar Santana on S1E1

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Top Chef Wisconsin (aka Top Chef Season 21) may be over, but the Top Chef Frotcast Post-Show isn’t. This week we welcome Top Chef season 13 finalist and season 20 fan favorite Amar Santana, chef/owner of Broadway and Vaca, both in Orange County, California. Amar is great interview, and actually seems to enjoy talking to us for whatever reason. Which I hope won’t get him into any professional trouble. Years ago I tasted Jamón Iberico for the first time thanks to Amar, which is one of those things you never forget.

We get all the Top Chef inside info from Amar, including what his casting process was like, how much editors manipulate the show, and whether Top Chef winners still dream of opening new restaurants. He takes us back to when he first heard about the show, working alongside Ilan Hall (who went onto win Top Chef season 2) as line cooks for Charlie Palmer, and why he decided to be on it. He talks about the moment Top Chef stopped feeling like a reality show and started feeling like a legit cooking competition (it involved the Voltaggio Brothers), as well as the auditioning process, the psych evaluation, and more.

Finally, we made Amar go back and watch the first episode of the first season of Top Chef, and we discuss all the things that make it kind of hilarious to watch now, from Katie Lee being the host instead of Padma, to Tom Colicchio’s soul patch, to that crazy Irish guy who got kicked off for putting his finger in Hubert Keller’s sauce (Ken Lee). Uh, that’s DJ Hubert Keller to you.

As always, thank you to our sponsor, Blackwood Distilling Co. (Yes, the show has a sponsor, that’s why it’s free on all platforms).

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Top Chef Frotcast Post-Show 3: The Top Chef Wisconsin Finale Breakdown

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Joey Devine and Vince Mancini are back with the last Top Chef post-mortem, on the Top Chef Wisconsin finale! (Which actually took place on a boat in Aruba). We actually recorded most of this after having watched every part of the show except for the last five minutes in which they declared a winner, and then had to go back and finish the podcast after the winner was declared. We thought we knew who had one with a great deal of certainty. And it turns out, we were wrong! We break down the entire meal, dish-by-dish, and then return with our discussion of the winner, what we’ve been cooking, and how we rank Top Chef Wisconsin, aka Top Chef season 21, in the pantheon of Top Chef seasons. Hope you enjoy, and thanks again to our sponsor, Blackwood Distilling.

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Lance Oppenheim Offers the Latest Updates on HBO’s ‘Ren Faire’

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Documentarian Lance Oppenheim last hung out with us just a few months ago to talk about Spermworld, his Hulu documentary about unlicensed sperm donors. At the time he teased us with news of his next project, Ren Faire, a documentary series about the eccentric owner of the Texas Renaissance Festival, one of the largest renaissance festivals in the world. Well now that documentary is here. Ren Faire, produced by the Safdie Brothers and Ronald Bronstein (Uncut Gems, Good Time, etc.) follows George Coulam, an eccentric octogenerian ex-Mormon who dresses in a self-designed military-inspired uniform who everyone calls “King George.” King George is the capricious ruler of the TRF, who says he wants to retire while his long-suffering employees scramble around trying to please him while plotting against each other and trying to set themselves up to become the heir apparent.

Ren Faire‘s main characters include Jeff Baldwin, the portly theater kid entertainment director who has recently become general manager, Louie Migliaccio, a steampunk energy drink addict who runs the festival’s kettle corn empire (but dreams of more), and Darla Smith, an elephant trainer-turned renaissance faire capitalist. Lance opens up about how he shot Ren Faire, what all the Ren Faire characters are doing now — big scoop on Jeff Baldwin and the rest of the staff in there — and how many energy drinks Louie Migliaccio consumes in a day. Oh, and about how King George’s sugar daddy dates at the Olive Garden actually went down, and whether George asked them any questions beyond whether their breasts are real.

Ren Faire is a great docuseries and the ultimate show for anyone who wants to know how unhappy rich people actually are.

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Top Chef Frotcast Post-Show, Episode 2

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Vince and Joey are back talking the latest episode of Top Chef, part one of the finale in Curacao. This week, part one of Top Chef’s season 21 finale took the chefs to the Caribbean nation of Curacao, where the final four competed in a battle to combine gouda and lionfish, and then in an eight-course fish tasting menu on a Holland America Cruise Line with fresh fish ambassador, Morimoto! As promised last week, host of the Roundball Rock podcast and Top Chef superfan, comedian Joey Devine is helping me, Vince Mancini from The #Content Report/Frotcast, break down the latest Top Chef ‘sode. Enjoy, share, subscribe, and check out our sponsor, Blackwood Distilling.

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Frotcast Bonus: Top Chef World All-Stars Winner Buddha Lo

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Big news for fans of Top Chef Power Index: I interviewed Top Chef World All-Stars winner Buddha Lo. Buddha became the first back-to-back Top Chef champion in the show’s history. In terms of how dominant he was, all I need to say is that I had him ranked number one in the first episode of his first season, and then had him number one again after all but one of this season’s episodes (and don’t think he didn’t know that I snubbed him in my episode one recap this year — I had him at number two).

You expect a guy as exacting in his approach as Buddha is to be kind of dull or a dick, but Buddha is just too Australian for that. He retains his casual appeal, and has such a unique background that he always makes for a great interview. Who else could I ask such pointed questions about what a dugong tastes like and expect such specific (and weirdly mouth watering) answers?

Read the whole write-up over at GQ, or (AND) listen to it here.

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Frotcast Bonus! ‘Borat 2’ Director Jason Woliner On ‘Paul T. Goldman’

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If you liked Borat or Nathan For You, I think you’re going to enjoy Paul T. Goldman. Director Jason Woliner directed Borat 2 and a few episodes of Nathan For You, but this time around says he was inspired by things like Grizzly Man and American Movie (I would stick Windy City Heat in there too). Basically 11 or 12 years ago this guy, Paul T. Goldman, starting tweeting at Jason Woliner (among many other directors) trying to get Jason interested in directed Paul’s life story. Paul had supposedly been taken advantage of by his ex-wife (his second, the first was a mail-order bride from the Ukraine) and had written not only a memoir about it, but a whole series of detective fiction starring himself, trying to stop human trafficking, which he believed this ex-wife was involved in.

Woliner did direct Paul’s life story, starring Paul as Paul, but he also shot a documentary about the making of said show, and also a documentary trying to get to the truth of Paul’s whole story. The show, produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, is this mix of all three — Paul’s show, the making of Paul’s show, and Jason’s story trying to figure out what the hell actually happened. I obviously enjoyed it, so I thought I’d share my two interviews with Jason Woliner here with you.

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Frotcast: Billy Corben On ‘God Forbid’

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Good Night And Good Cuck

Director Billy Corben is absolutely SMASHING the record for the director with the most Frotcast appearances, with three or maybe even four already. Who can even say?! The man behind Cocaine Cowboys, The U, 537 Votes, Screwballs, et. al. is always a great interview — a “raconteur,” you might even say, which happens to be the name of his production company — so any time he has a movie out it’s a great excuse to get him on.

This week (month?) he has ‘God Forbid’ out on a Hulu, a documentary about Jerry Falwell Jr.’s swingery relationship with a “Miami pool boy” named Giancarlo Granda, who was really only a pool boy for one year of his life but now is forever associated with the phrase because of the scandal. Jerry ALLEGEDLY liked to watch Giancarlo have sex with his wife, Becki, but, because Giancarlo and Jerry caught tied up in a real estate deal with some sketchy Miami dudes, they ended up suing and the whole pool boy/swinger thing got out. ALSO, Trump lawyer Michael Cohen knew about the relationship and has claimed that he used this knowledge as leverage in trying to get Jerry Jr. to support Trump’s bid for president — which Jerry Jr did, and probably had some hand in evangelicals voting for Trump in record numbers.

Phew, now you know why this conversation lasted for a whole hour. Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what have yous. Hope you enjoy, and don’t forget to check out God Forbid on Hulu.

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TEASER: Frotcast 520 – ‘House Of The Dragon’ And Awful New Startups, With Jessica Sele

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This week on the Frotcast, comedian Jessica Sele joins Matt and Vince to discuss oh so many things. Things such as House Of The Dragon, the new HBO prequel for Game Of Thrones about House Targaryen. It opened with a dragon and I went “ugh” inside and then I watched the entire thing. Does that mean I have to apologize to all the Baby Yoda people I made fun of because I’ve proved that I’m just as much of a piggie? We also discuss the rottweiler that may or may not have caused Sylvester Stallone’s divorce, as well as the bull mastiff that Sylvester Stallone got tattooed on his arm over his wife’s face. Which is a normal thing that everyone does. Finally, we talk about a new startup that promises to make any user sound white and American over the phone, regardless of their actual voice. Technology, is there anything it can’t do?

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