Tag Archives: Interviews

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

TV, , ,

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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Bonus Frotcast: Steve-O From Jackass On Sex Addiction, And ‘A Hard Kick In The Nuts’

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Hey, what’s up, gang. It’s Vince here, and boy have we got a treat for you guys on the free feed today! Not that you deserve it. In fact, you should definitely stop listening right and go sign up for the Patreon at Patreon dot com slash frotcast. Are you still listening? God dammit. Oh well. Anyway, this week, I’m talking to Steve-O. You know, from Jackass. You know Steve-O! Steve-O has a book coming out. The Book is called A Hard Kick In THe Nuts, What I’ve Learned From A Lifetime of Terrible Decisions, and it’s available everywhere books are sold. It’s about Steve-O’s sex addiction, his recovery from sex addiction, his relationships, what he’s learned in recovery… All that stuff! Anyway, that’s the context of the interview today, and I hope you enjoy it, even if you think you’re too damn good to sign up for our Patreon. Do it! Matt’s baby just got born! Congrats, matt! Sign up for the Patreon so she doesn’t go hungry. Okay, love you all, enjoy.

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Bonus Frotcast: Pauly Shore Talks ‘Encino Man’ 30th Anniversary

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Last week I got to talk to Pauly Shore for the 30th anniversary of Encino Man, and now I’m sharing the audio version for you earholes. This was a pretty cool interview, because as you can hear, I wore out quite a few Pauly Shore movies back when I was a kid. I also think he’s a really interesting character, who sort of got unfairly punished just for getting famous right at the tail end of the hair metal era. Not to mention having had an interesting life, being the son of the owners of the Comedy Store and becoming basically a superstar in his early twenties. As you can hear, he’s still a pretty funny dude. One of my favorite things about this was Pauly effortlessly shutting down my attempts to riff with him, which to me ended up being way funnier than if he’d actually played along and yes-anded me. “What? Yeah, whatever, anyway..”

Like I said, I think Pauly is a super interesting guy and I hope you guys enjoy listening to this interview as much as I enjoyed doing it. Frot on.

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Bonus Frot: ‘Dual’ Director Riley Stearns

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This week I (Vince) got to talk to Riley Stearns, the director of Dual, so I’m sharing the audio version with you guys here. Riley previously directed The Art of Self-Defense, which I didn’t like nearly as much as I liked his new one, Dual, starring Karen Gillan and Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad, which is a sort of light sci-fi set in a world where you can clone people, and sometimes you have to fight your own clone for the right to your identity. Riley shot this one in Finland because of COVID, so all the extras are Finnish, which actually gives it a weird effect that adds to the film. We also talk about jiu-jitsu (which we both practice) and an incident during Sundance when Riley objected to a film critic who had previously made fun of him over his divorce (to Mary Elizabeth Winstead) reviewing his new movie. There was kind of a thing about it, but unless you’re extremely online and follow “film twitter” closely you probably didn’t hear about it (and are probably better off). Anyway, check it out, and see if Dual is playing near you go see it.

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TEASER – Noomi Rapace and Valdimar Jóhannsson from LAMB

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FULL EPISODE AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS AT PATREON.COM/FROTCAST

Hey, Frotcast fans. I’ve gotten mostly positive feedback on the interviews I’ve shared, so I thought what the hell, I guess I’ll keep posting them.

This week I got to talk to Noomi Rapace and Valdimar Johansson from the movie Lamb. Valdimar directed it and Noomi Rapace stars. You may also know her from such films as Prometheus, the original Swedish versions of the Girl with The Dragon Tattoo movies, and The Drop. Which, just as an aside, to me was the superior dog revenge movie, though it got got unfairly overshadowed by John Wick.

Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. Like I said, the movie is called Lamb, it’s from A24, and it’s out in theaters this weekend. It’s about a couple, named Maria and Ingvar, who live on a farm in Iceland, who sort of have their lives changed by this baby lamb. I thought it was beautifully shot and just enjoyably weird.

We don’t get into too much spoiler territory in this, at least nothing that’s not in the Trailer. Aaaaand. Well, I’m pretty sure that’s all you need to know. Anyway, hope you enjoy it, and if not we’ll have lots of regular Frotcasts coming your way.

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Frotcast Extra: Murder Among The Mormons, With Jared Hess And Tyler Measom

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On Netflix this week, there’s a new docu-series called Murder Among The Mormons. It’s about a series of murders in Salt Lake City in the 80s, so in some ways it’s your standard true crime in some ways. But it’s also set deep within the Mormon community, and follows this guy Mark Hofmann, a rare documents dealer and prolific documents forger. It’s full of all these eccentric characters, and it was directed by Tyler Measom, a doc director who has worked a lot for TV, and Jared Hess, the director of Napoleon Dynamite — the latter of which comes to make a lot of sense, since Hofmann is basically a Gentleman Broncos or Masterminds character come to life. Through this show you come to understand a lot of the kinds of characters that have inspired Hess throughout his career.

This was initially a conversation we had for a print interview on Uproxx, but not everything can fit in a print interview and I thought it was a fun conversation, so might as well share with you here. Check out Murder Among The Mormons on Netflix, and for more Frotcast content subscribe to our premium feed at Patreon.com/Frotcast, and check out our other podcast about The Sopranos, Pod Yourself A Gun.

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Frotcast Extra: Historian Simon Balto On ‘Judas And The Black Messiah’

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Howdy, Frotcast. If you’re a FilmDrunk reader as well as a listener, you may have caught my article on Fact and Fiction in Judas In The Black Messiah. The film is beautiful and intriguing but also slightly disappointing, but mostly it made me want to delve into the history of the time and events it depicts — specifically the conflict between the Chicago Police and Black Chicago in the late 60s, as well as COINTELPRO and J. Edgar Hoover’s war against Civil Rights leaders in general and the Black Panthers in particular (did you know they tried to blackmail Martin Luther King into killing himself using evidence of his extramarital affairs? wild).

Much of this culminated in the raid on Chicago Panthers chair Fred Hampton, which was basically a coordinated assassination. It was found that Hampton had been drugged, and that the FBI had an informant close to Hampton, and on the night they shot up the Panthers house and executed Hampton in his bed. The film stars Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton (the “Black Messiah”) and Lakeith Stanfield as FBI informant Bill O’Neal (Judas). Other characters include Roy Mitchell, O’Neal’s FBI handler, played by Jesse Plemons, and J. Edgar Hoover, played by Martin Sheen.

I was curious about the general history and the way certain events were depicted in the film, so I sought out an expert — Simon Balto, assistant professor of History and African-American Studies at the University of Iowa and the author of Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago from Red Summer to Black Power. He’s also working on a biography of Fred Hampton. Obviously he had a lot more to say than I could fit into my article, so I thought I’d share the full conversation here. As always, we have lots more content available to our Patreon subscribers at Patreon.com/Frotcast, and on our totally free Sopranos podcast, Pod Yourself A Gun.

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Frotcast Bonus: Billy Corben And Alfred Spellman For ‘537 Votes’

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Normally this is the kind of thing I’d probably post on the premium feed for our Patreon subscribers (Patreon.com/Frotcast) but this interview seems, dare I say it… too important for that? Understanding what happened in 2000 in Florida, and specifically in Miami, and how it got us to where we are today seems like required viewing going into this election. That’s the subject of ‘537 Votes,’ the new documentary on HBO from director Billy Corben and his producing partner Alfred Spellman, whose films — Screwball, the Cocaine Cowboys movies, The U, Magic City Hustle… have largely all advanced the thesis that Florida and specifically Miami is a cautionary tale for the rest of America, culminating in their latest movie. In this chat, I pick their brains about why that is, how it came to be, and how they became the documentarian answer to Carl Hiaasen — making “Florida F*ckery” a genre all its own.

You can also read my profile of Billy and Alfred on Uproxx. Enjoy it and go vote even if it seems kinda pointless. 2000 was my first election and I voted even though it seemed kinda pointless then too but imagine how different things might be had it worked out a little differently.

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TEASER – More ‘Uncle Bunky’ Stories With The Style Master

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Chris Santa Maria’s obituary for his “Uncle Bunky,” which originally ran in the Arizona Republic, went viral last week, thanks to his uncle’s wonderful nicknames (“Mud Flap,” “Style Master”) and catchphrases (“Save it, clown.”). Santa Maria seemed to have a lot more Bunky stories, and a couple people urged me to have him on the Frotcast to tell them all. And that’s basically what I did! So here’s Chris, providing the backstory and all the Uncle Bunky stories (un)fit to print, including the stolen shotgun and getting thrown out of a NASCAR race. You’re welcome, Zeebos.

For the full interview, become a patron at Patreon.com/Frotcast.

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