Episode 1

Transcript:

00:00:00
Welcome to Comically Exposed.

00:00:09
It's our first episode.

00:00:11
My name is Gabbie and my co-host is.

00:00:14
Heather and I.

00:00:16
We met during some UCB classes that we took over the pandemic.

00:00:24
We are both comedy writers who are looking to crack into

00:00:27
the business and trying to figure out just how do we get our work out there at this point?

00:00:34
Because, well, there's a writer's strike,

00:00:39
but that has less to do with what's happening here.

00:00:41
I would say what more is happening is that both Heather and I are fortunate to be OCD buddies.

00:00:49
Yep, we both have OCD, share that in common.

00:00:56
Something that I'm sure all our comedy friends are sick of hearing us talk about

00:01:04
because everything is related to OCD apparently in our lives.

00:01:09
Yeah. I mean, listen, it's the current lens I'm using to see the world and myself,

00:01:16
and it's the lens that's currently making the most sense, allowing me to figure out the most,

00:01:22
learn the most.

00:01:23
But if you are unfamiliar with OCD,

00:01:27
in Hollywood, I would say OCD is portrayed as this contamination issue.

00:01:32
You have germaphobes and people washing their hands all the time,

00:01:36
and that is definitely contamination.

00:01:38
OCD definitely exists.

00:01:40
It's just not one of the flavors that I have.

00:01:43
Do you have it, Heather?

00:01:44
No. Well,

00:01:45
there is a variety that there's a little bit of contamination issues,

00:01:51
but mostly mine's not about contamination.

00:01:54
Yeah. I think of OCD as this many tentacled monster

00:02:00
that just has all these different arms that serve to fuck you up

00:02:06
in various ways throughout your life.

00:02:09
For some people with contamination issues,

00:02:12
the pandemic was huge.

00:02:15
It was like the worst fears come to life.

00:02:18
In OCD, there is a fear.

00:02:21
There are thoughts and feelings you have about that fear.

00:02:25
That's the OCD voice telling you to do X, Y, and Z.

00:02:28
Those are the compulsions that if you give into doing those compulsions,

00:02:35
it just makes the OCD worse until your life is very,

00:02:40
very small and it's hard to function.

00:02:44
I feel like I'm talking a lot.

00:02:46
So if you have any thoughts, Heather.

00:02:48
Yeah. If you look at it from an overarching perspective of OCD,

00:02:54
the general thing is it can be about control.

00:02:59
Outside of that, the descriptor,

00:03:04
I guess, is intrusive thought,

00:03:06
which everybody has.

00:03:07
Is that horrible thought, feeling, sensation, visual, whatever.

00:03:13
But the thing that makes it OCD is the compulsion element to it.

00:03:17
The compulsions are there for the relief.

00:03:21
Because that's the cycle of OCD.

00:03:23
It's like you just do something,

00:03:26
you don't realize you're doing it.

00:03:27
I call it like I zoned out.

00:03:31
You let OCD take the wheel for a minute.

00:03:34
Yeah, OCD take the wheel for a minute and I zone out.

00:03:38
Then I realize about three or four hours later

00:03:40
that I've been doing the same thing over and over again.

00:03:45
Luckily, it doesn't happen that often as much anymore.

00:03:49
But aside from talking about OCD the entire time, oh my God.

00:03:52
Oh yeah.

00:03:53
This is not a podcast about OCD. It's about us.

00:03:56
Yeah.

00:03:57
It's about OCD because it is about us.

00:04:00
I would say we both share the intrusive thought OCD.

00:04:04
I would say my main compulsion is avoidance.

00:04:08
I have a lot of what I think are very brilliant comedic ideas

00:04:14
of projects and things that I want to do.

00:04:17
But then I will come up with a bajillion reasons why it won't work

00:04:22
or perfectionism will come into play.

00:04:25
I will have created so many steps

00:04:28
that completing the project is just impossible.

00:04:31
This podcast is for Heather and I.

00:04:34
Because we both have lists of not only projects and goals

00:04:39
that we want to complete on our own,

00:04:41
but we also have a list of stuff that we want to complete together

00:04:46
and with some other comedy people.

00:04:52
They're people.

00:04:55
I don't know.

00:04:55
Professionals trying to be professional?

00:04:58
I don't know.

00:04:59
Professionals can be people.

00:05:01
Yes.

00:05:04
My mind went to sex work because of course it did

00:05:07
because intrusive thoughts.

00:05:09
Anyway, and also I'm sure my brain was scrambling for a joke.

00:05:13
Okay, so I think the general structure of these episodes,

00:05:17
you and I have talked about it,

00:05:19
is we'll have a check-in at the beginning of the episode,

00:05:23
just like, hey, what's up?

00:05:25
Then you and I are each going to discuss what happened with the project

00:05:31
that we said we were going to work on

00:05:32
for a couple of weeks.

00:05:34
Yep.

00:05:35
Then we're going to talk about what's our next goal,

00:05:38
our next project we want to complete in the next couple of weeks.

00:05:42
Yeah.

00:05:43
That's the gist.

00:05:45
It's going to be us exposing ourselves to actually have the world see our stuff

00:05:55
and do the stuff that we're going to do.

00:05:59
Hopefully, it'll be entertaining or we'll just get stuff done.

00:06:03
That's just what it is.

00:06:05
I think that that's how it should go.

00:06:08
100% agree.

00:06:10
Yeah, because that's the other part of OCD that we didn't talk about,

00:06:13
which is exposure and response prevention.

00:06:16
Yes.

00:06:17
I muddled that.

00:06:18
Perfect.

00:06:19
Thank you.

00:06:21
You expose yourself to the thing that you fear

00:06:25
and then it becomes something that you're not as fearful of anymore.

00:06:29
It allows you to move forward in life, I think.

00:06:34
My therapist recently told me that it's what he calls,

00:06:38
it's a wrestling term apparently or weightlifting term,

00:06:42
but it's called time under tension.

00:06:45
Oh, mm-hmm.

00:06:47
Just doing it over and over again,

00:06:49
just doing the action makes you stronger.

00:06:52
That's kind of what the exposures that we're doing right now

00:06:55
is just doing the action of doing, just the action of doing,

00:06:59
not to say doing too many times because now it's in my head.

00:07:03
But just doing the action will build the strength to continue.

00:07:10
That's how we make those bold moves,

00:07:13
how we can make those bold choices to continue forward,

00:07:17
whether or not other people find it funny.

00:07:20
That's right. In fact, another exposure is to say out loud,

00:07:25
nobody is going to find this stuff funny.

00:07:28
They're going to think that we are terrible people, highly offensive,

00:07:33
the opposite of funny.

00:07:35
I don't know what that is.

00:07:37
Nazis.

00:07:38
Not funny.

00:07:39
Yeah, or Nazis.

00:07:41
I know your mind goes there because...

00:07:43
It does.

00:07:44
Jewish. You can say it.

00:07:46
Yeah.

00:07:47
No, I know that's not funny.

00:07:49
No, I know I can say it.

00:07:54
Okay, enough with the OCD, which I brought back up again.

00:07:58
That's on me.

00:07:59
I say let's talk about our goals because we both have lists in front of us.

00:08:03
Yes, yes, we do.

00:08:05
Yeah. Okay.

00:08:07
Should...

00:08:09
Okay.

00:08:10
I'm just going to start.

00:08:12
Yeah, that sounds good.

00:08:13
Okay, great.

00:08:16
Nobody can see this right now, but Gabbie is actively crying.

00:08:20
I'm sobbing.

00:08:21
This is very tough for me.

00:08:22
I like to have an authority figure here.

00:08:24
Heather and I have decided to be all like...

00:08:27
Yeah.

00:08:28
...galitarian.

00:08:29
I know. Seriously. Seriously.

00:08:32
Okay. Anyway, tears aside, man up.

00:08:37
Okay.

00:08:38
I have six goals.

00:08:41
The first one is I want to apply to Mortified.

00:08:46
That is a show that happens in various towns like on the West Coast and also New York, I think, has Mortified shows.

00:08:52
People go there.

00:08:53
They read from their teenage diaries or other really embarrassing stuff.

00:08:58
I've always wanted to be a part of it.

00:09:00
I wrote a standup set when I was 14.

00:09:03
I would like to perform it.

00:09:05
I'm sure it's ridiculous because I had no life experience at that time.

00:09:10
That's ridiculous.

00:09:12
The second thing I want to try is standup.

00:09:15
I have wanted to do that since I was a small kid, be a standup.

00:09:19
I don't know.

00:09:21
Maybe 187 in which years.

00:09:23
I should give it a shot.

00:09:25
The third thing is I have written two spec scripts for already existing shows, What We Do in the Shadows and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

00:09:36
I would love to get a bunch of our friends together to do a Zoom table read and maybe put it out into the ether so it can be ignored en masse.

00:09:48
Then there is another podcast that I've had an idea for probably a decade.

00:09:55
It's going to be called Bat Shit Roommate.

00:09:58
It's just people coming in.

00:10:00
We talk about living with Bat Shit roommates, usually in your 20s.

00:10:05
We're late teens.

00:10:07
When you yourself or myself have been a Bat Shit roommate, we all have.

00:10:12
It's a uniting podcast.

00:10:14
It brings folks together.

00:10:17
Then there's two other things that I haven't thought about as much, which is one, I would like to start a YouTube channel or do reels on Instagram of characters that I just come up with and do in front of a green screen.

00:10:34
I also have this idea of something called high astronomy where people get stoned or drunk or otherwise inebriated.

00:10:41
I can finally put my stupid astrophysics degree to use and they ask me, hey man, how big is the universe?

00:10:48
Then I get to talk about it.

00:10:52
The last thing, and I swear I will let Heather talk again at some point, is I want to organize a live event in the Bay Area where people, not necessarily comics, come together and we share our Kaiser Permanente health insurance horror stories.

00:11:15
Because I was out to dinner with a friend of mine and we were trading back and forth on some pretty horrendous medical stories that our insurance had put us through and laughing hysterically through this trauma.

00:11:32
Our waiter came over, asked what we were talking about, and then said, oh, do you want to hear a Kaiser Permanente horror story?

00:11:40
Because I have one as well.

00:11:42
So I think this would also be a great night of community, but also processing trauma through the lens of laughing.

00:11:53
So those are my things.

00:11:55
That's a lot of things.

00:11:58
Seriously, Gabbie.

00:11:59
I mean, you're doing it.

00:12:03
I've made a list.

00:12:04
I've certainly made a list.

00:12:05
You made a list.

00:12:06
You did the first step of starting to do it.

00:12:10
So I did want to mention that we have two, we have combined goals as well.

00:12:14
One is this podcast, Comically Exposed, which I don't know if we actually said in the beginning, but you know, it's cool.

00:12:23
I said it now.

00:12:24
It's like, you know, after 10 minutes in, so, you know, whatever.

00:12:28
And SketchFest, San Francisco SketchFest, we're applying with our also partner in crime, Susan.

00:12:35
And we are called Not Sisters, so happening and I'm excited about it because I really wanted to be able to do something as a live performance.

00:12:45
Although I am not acting in it.

00:12:48
So she says now.

00:12:50
I know.

00:12:51
So I say now I am, I guess, director, writer.

00:12:55
I mean, everybody's a writer in the group, but I'm the person behind the scenes kind of throwing stuff together.

00:13:01
And you're the authority figure.

00:13:02
I know you've shied away from it in this podcast, but we're forcing you to be the authority figure.

00:13:08
I guess I am the authority figure.

00:13:12
That is that is my role.

00:13:16
I'm just letting you know now.

00:13:18
I know I agree.

00:13:19
These are these are our combined goals.

00:13:22
And I'm just excited to meet everybody in person because we've been working online for a few years now.

00:13:28
Yeah, we just see, you know, we're just we're just floating heads, you know, on screens right now.

00:13:34
And that's that's who I talk to mostly is all floating heads.

00:13:38
So I guess I'll talk about my goals and my I my list is not as extensive, but feels just as long, at least in my brain it does.

00:13:47
So I did also want to start a podcast and I'm not I'm tentatively calling it working on stuff where it's an interview style podcast,

00:13:56
where I interview people from different levels of experience in terms of how they started, what they're working on.

00:14:04
And, you know, just, you know, some self-promotion, not myself, but, you know, their selves and then maybe my self-promotion.

00:14:12
And then I just finished an audio storytelling series class with Keeley Stemilake at UCB, which was fantastic, by the way.

00:14:22
So if if anybody listening wants to take a class, it's called For Your Ears Only Writing Audio Comedy Series.

00:14:31
It doesn't have to be comedy series. I'm working on that.

00:14:34
Excited about it, because what I wrote actually kind of excited me.

00:14:38
And I have some things that I want to add to it to potentially make it into a series.

00:14:44
And then my next one is creating a terrible animation of my sketches, because I have so many sketches that I've written that are so funny, dude, that deserve to see the light of day.

00:14:59
Hopefully I can do them a service. I don't know. We'll see.

00:15:04
I mean, that's just what it is. Thank you, Gabbie. That just embarrassed me, obviously, because I'm kind of I'm trying to find words and they're not coming out of my face.

00:15:13
So I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just want people to know because they don't know already that you are a brilliant, funny writer.

00:15:20
And I'm so excited for this, quote unquote, bad animation so that people can see it.

00:15:25
And it's bad because I don't know what I'm doing to create the animation, but I have words that need to be spoken.

00:15:35
So I don't know what I'm calling it just yet, but right now in my brain, it's the terrible animation that I'm creating. So that's what it is. Yeah. Perfect.

00:15:45
Done. Done. Done. TM. That's right. The lawyers involved. Yep. Yep. Yep. And so what are we going to do next on our goals?

00:15:55
You also have a table read as well, right? Oh, you're not wanting to do that.

00:16:01
Well, I was going to do a table read for my audio series once I get it going. I know. Oh, I see. My bad.

00:16:09
I thought you were doing a table read of your spec script also. Oh, yeah, I guess I could.

00:16:14
I guess I could have a fourth goal, you know, that Gabbie just added on to my plate, which already see the chat is just me screaming obscenities to Heather.

00:16:28
Yeah, she is. She's really vile to me. I'm not a good person. Like beyond like what's beyond abuse.

00:16:37
Yeah, I don't know. Investment banker. Yes, investment banker. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Cryptocurrency. Yes. Yes. NFTs.

00:16:48
That's right. That's what I actually that's the only thing I put in our chat is NFT NFT NFT every morning.

00:16:55
Which I was trying to figure out what that acronym was. So, you know, I still don't know because I didn't look it up.

00:17:02
Well, I don't either. But I think it's important that I screaming at people. They should know. They should know. They should know.

00:17:11
OK, so you have what is that five goals now? I think it's four. Four. Four goals. OK, I don't. Are you trying to give me five? Yeah.

00:17:23
Like I need more. More to do. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Seriously.

00:17:30
I mean, the amount of work that Heather has already put into this podcast is truly awesome.

00:17:35
Like, I'm excited for how it turns out because you're a smart cookie and it's going to be I'm going to stop complimenting you because I can see all the joy leaving from your face.

00:17:48
I'll just I'm accepting your compliments. I feel like I should be paying you more compliments because now I feel like a terrible person.

00:17:57
Good. This is a great podcast about us feeling bad about ourselves constantly.

00:18:03
And that's what we hope to make our audience feel right. Yes. Terrible about themselves. Feel bad about us.

00:18:09
Pity, pity, pity, pity, pity, suffering, suffering, suffering, investment, thinking.

00:18:16
Which is the other name of this podcast. Like, if you know, you know. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's Wolf of Wall Street. Yes.

00:18:26
And so, Gabbie, did you want to talk about? Yes. What's happening this week? Yes. What's happening this week? Because it's exciting.

00:18:34
Well, by a real whirl of wind, I am traveling to see our friend Susan up in Calgary, Canada. And I'm sure she's going to appreciate that funny pronunciation.

00:18:49
And we are going to do stand up. She has already signed me up to do stand up in three days.

00:18:56
You might be asking yourself, hey, Gabbie, I know this is a lifelong dream. Do you have any stand up written since you were 14? And the answer is kind of, you know, I have some notes app stuff, you know, we'll we'll see what comes out.

00:19:10
Are you terrified of bombing? Yeah, yeah, totally. But it's in Calgary. Who even fucking lives in Calgary? You know what I mean? Other than Susan.

00:19:20
Oh, yeah, that's a dear friend who I do want to impress. No, in all seriousness, I'm I'm thinking, you know, I'll probably bomb and that'll be good. Yeah, sounds good.

00:19:35
Get the first bomb out of the way. So, Heather, what about you, my friend? This week? I am this week putting together our video for SketchFest.

00:19:48
I know. Wait, was that on your list? Yeah, that was on my list. That's on our like combined combined list. You guys had to feed me information and then I'm putting it together with programs I've never used before.

00:20:02
Honestly, Susan and I got the better end of that deal.

00:20:08
We're like, here's some stuff we've done. Make it pretty.

00:20:12
Do some CGI shit, you know, like.

00:20:16
Yeah, make it look good. Make it seem funny.

00:20:22
And then change the audio levels, you know, simple stuff.

00:20:27
Yes.

00:20:30
Well, I think those are two excellent goals.

00:20:33
Do you have any like strategies that you're looking for this week? Any like OCD stuff that you feel is coming up?

00:20:41
What any last minute things you want to impart?

00:20:46
Oh, I'm sure I'm going to have stuff afterwards because that's how it works for me.

00:20:51
Because I don't realize it's happening and then it's happening.

00:20:55
So that should be good. I am trying to, I don't know, just get.

00:21:00
I have no words.

00:21:02
I honestly feel the same. I feel like that's a good way to end this.

00:21:11
Which is we have said all the words.

00:21:13
Yes. And also we should say that we're trying to keep this under 30 minutes.

00:21:18
Yes, because time is precious and I usually listen to podcasts at double speed anyway.

00:21:27
So, yeah.

00:21:30
Yeah. So let's, you know, keep it, keep it trim and moving.

00:21:35
I don't know if that's a thing.

00:21:37
Yeah. So thank you, everybody, for joining us for our first episode of Comically Exposed.

00:21:43
I have been Gabbie.

00:21:45
And I have been Heather.

00:21:47
And we'll probably still be those people in a couple of weeks when we catch you up on episode two.

00:21:53
Sounds good. Bye, everyone.

00:21:55
Bye, Dee Dee.

00:22:00
Welcome to the end of the show.

00:22:02
This is Gabbie Blachman.

00:22:04
And this is Heather Nye.

00:22:06
Thank you for listening to Comically Exposed.

00:22:09
We're just a little show with two creators who edit and produce each episode.

00:22:14
We appreciate all your support.

00:22:17
If you liked what you heard, please follow us on Instagram at comicallyexp.podcast.

00:22:23
That's comicallyexp.podcast.

00:22:30
Or subscribe to us on Spotify.

00:22:32
New episodes drop every other Wednesday.

00:22:35
Also, special thanks to Track Club and Gxldxn Fxtch for providing music.

00:22:40
Thanks for listening. And hey, everybody, today is a great day to expose yourself.

00:22:47
OK, until next time, ta ta for ta da.

00:22:51
Bye.

00:22:53
Bang.

00:22:54
Me.

00:22:55
Bang.

00:22:57
Ha ha ha.