Stay ConnectedSup Doc is the comedy podcast where docs get reviewed and recapped! Hosts Paco Romane and George Chen dive into docs with sharp takes, big laughs, and cool guests from the worlds of tv, movies and music.
No homework required—just show up and have fun.
“A fun way to pore over docs” – Vulture
“Enlightening” – The A.V. Club
We cover the Netflix series Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. a tale of manipulation, Stockholm Syndrome, and only tangentially veganism. It’s a four part series directed by Chris Smith (American Movie).
After marrying a mysterious man who claimed he could make her dog immortal, celebrated raw vegan restaurateur Sarma Melngailis finds her life veering off the rails.
This is truly one of the more baffling stories in a scam-heavy season of television, so we had to do an episode on it.
Our guest to discuss this is writer Laura Hooper Beck. Her work has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Jezebel, and she is a writer on Fox’s The Great North.
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Twitter: @mrpenguino
Instagram: @mrpenguino
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This is one of our BIOPSY episodes where instead of a documentary, we watch a ripped-from-the-headlines fictional account of a true story.
Today we’re covering the Shonda Rhimes Netflix hit Inventing Anna. Anna Sorokin, who went by the made up persona of Anna Delvey, was convicted of larceny in 2019. Delvey rose through New York’s social strata and convinced many institutions and people to loan her money with a fake German heiress backstory, and this nine part miniseries dramatizes the saga with Julia Garner playing Delvey
And our guest is comedian and musician Luna Malbroux, who fuses her experience as a skilled facilitator and educator of justice, equity, inclusion, diversity in all of her creative endeavors. She works in a number of genres from turning the documentary experience Mapping Privilege into an award winning play, How to Be A White Man, To blending jazz, comedy, and storytelling with her band, The Moon and The Man. Luna has been featured on NPR, PBS, AJ+, Glamour Magazine, The Atlantic and more. She is also chief vibe officer of Joy Channel, an org that brings together creatives and change agents to transform culture.
Follow Luna Malbroux on:
Twitter: @lunaisamerica
Instagram: @lunaisamerica
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We deep dive into Todd Haynes’ Velvet Underground documentary (2021) on AppleTV. Haynes talks to the surviving members of the band and a lot of New York art world and the Warhol Factory scene about this legendary group that blended drone, multimedia, and doo-wop. The first-person accounts are great and you get steeped in the heady New York days of yore.
Our guest is music publicist and Velvets fan Daniel Gill, who runs Force Field PR. George makes an argument for the TCCU (Tony Conrad Cinematic Universe) and Daniel plays a very thorough Cast This Doc. No Jonathan Richman impressions were maimed.
Daniel Gill runs the PR and management firm Force Field out of the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Force Field is best known for launching the careers of many of your present day brunch playlist favorites, such as Sufjan Stevens, St. Vincent, Beach House, Toro Y Moi, Real Estate, Neon Indian, Tennis, Lord Huron, Panda Bear, Woods, Kevin Morby, and many more. They've also handled PR for a slew of music documentaries including Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, ZAPPA, Once Were Brothers, Crock of Gold, Danny Says, Other Music, etc. Gill is also serving as the producer on the newly launched music podcast Discograffiti.
*Dan put together this Spotify playlist of songs and people we referenced this episode! A great Velvets primer.
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Twitter: @forcefieldpr
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Paco and George talk to the director of For Madmen Only: The Stories of Del Close Heather Ross, and actor James Urbaniak. This doc is currently streaming on Amazon, Google Play, AppleTV, and Hulu.
For Madmen Only is an intimate look at the tremendously influential comedy and improv guru Del Close. This documentary is an eye-opener for anyone unfamiliar with this improv family tree that includes: Jon Glaser, Rachel Dratch, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Tina Fey, Vince Vaughn, Bob Odenkirk, Adam McKay, Amy Poehler, Elaine May, and Bill Murray. It's crazy how many comedy stars were his students! Check out a partial list here.
We had a great conversation and that moves from comedy, mental illness, improv, drugs, seekers vs oracles, comic books, music and much more!
Our guest Heather Ross is an Emmy winning director & producer. She directed the documentaries For Madmen Only and Girls on the Wall as well as directing and producing for HBO, NBC, Fox, Discovery, A&E and more.
James Urbaniak has starred in a series of films by Hal Hartley starting with Henry Fool, plays Dr. Venture on The Venture Brothers, was Crumb in American Splendor, and was a regular on Difficult People and Review. He also hosts the podcast Getting On With James Urbaniak.
Follow the film on:
Twitter: @madmenonlymovie
Follow Heather on:
Twitter: @sincerelyhr
Follow James on:
Twitter: @JamesUrbaniak
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We're discussing Fantastic Fungi (2019), directed by Louie Schwartzberg. We look at all the forms of fungi, the roles they play in recycling matter, communicating with the trees, and even their role in human evolution. You may never look at mold the same way again. Our guest for this episode is comedian Jessica Sele.
Fantastic Fungi is a consciousness-shifting film about the mycelium network that takes us on an immersive journey through time and scale into the magical earth beneath our feet, an underground network that can heal and save our planet. Through the eyes of renowned scientists and mycologists like Paul Stamets, best-selling authors like Michael Pollan, Eugenia Bone, Andrew Weil and others, we become aware of the beauty, intelligence and solutions that fungi kingdom offers in response to some of our most pressing medical, therapeutic, and environmental challenges.
Jessica Sele is a Los Angeles-based comedian whose teeth were cut sharply in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her material ranges from sexuality to substance abuse to living in the end times. Her performances leave audiences to feel that demons have just left their bodies to take the night off. She hosts the West LA comedy night at Giant Robot, as well as the podcast, “Hot Topic: Jessica Sele talks about climate change for some reason.” Jessica has performed on Viceland, is a regular feature at her home club the San Francisco Punch Line, and has performed at fancy comedy festivals, colleges, clubs, and alt shows across the nation.
Follow Jessica on:
Twitter: @jsele
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We review the documentary Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11 which you can catch on Vice TV on Sept. 8th, just a few days before the 20th anniversary of the 2001 attacks.
The documentary features interviews with comedians including David Cross, Gilbert Godfried, Janeane Garofolo, and Marc Maron about the struggle to re-establish humor’s place in the aftermath of the attacks that day. The film explores how stand-up comedians, Broadway performers, late-night hosts, and Saturday Night Live helped audiences laugh even in the darkest of days. Our guest is Julie Seabaugh the director, executive producer, and story editor of Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11.
Too Soon premieres on VICE TV September 8 at 9 p.m. and will be repeating numerous times thereafter. (VICE TV is available via all major satellite and cable providers and the VICE TV app via iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, and Chromecast.)
Julie Seabaugh grew up on a farm in rural Missouri and discovered stand-up when Dave Attell performed during her senior year of college. Way back in 2003, she founded and edited the criminally ahead of its time print and online comedy magazine Two Drink Minimum. Now the only full-time freelance comedy journalist in the United States, she’s contributed to The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, GQ, Variety, The A.V. Club, The Village Voice, The Huffington Post, Spin, Playboy, Vulture, Paste, Time Out New York, Time Out Chicago, and numerous other alt-weeklies.
Seabaugh’s coverage of modern roasting culminated in the 2018 book Ringside at Roast Battle: The First Five Years of L.A.'s Fight Club for Comedians, and her love of Mitch Hedberg led to producing/hosting 2020’s Hope on Top: A Mitch Hedberg Oral History for SiriusXM’s Comedy Central Channel (available to stream via the SiriusXM app). With Emmy-nominated director and editor Nick Scown, she is currently producing the documentary Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11. Participants include David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, Gilbert Gottfried, Lewis Black, Darrell Hammond, Doug Stanhope, and Marc Maron; the film’s 2021 release will mark the twentieth anniversary of the attacks.
Among her career highlights, simultaneous Bridget Everett Village Voice and Roast Battle L.A. Weekly cover stories ran on both sides of the country the week of September 8, 2014. Interviewees over the years include Carl Reiner, Christopher Guest, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Joan Rivers, George Carlin, Don Rickles, Eddie Izzard, Drew Carey, Howie Mandel, Jimmy Kimmel, Key & Peele, Judd Apatow, Lily Tomlin, Mitch Hedberg, Seth Meyers, Wanda Sykes, and Zach Galifianakis.
Having previously served as A&E staff writer at Las Vegas Weekly, Seabaugh won a 2015 Nevada Press Association Award for a cover profile tracing the downward health spiral of The Amazing Johnathan. “It’s obvious the author is a wordsmith,” judges wrote. “Every sentence is well thought out. It’s full of lively adjectives and truly paints a picture of what the Amazing Johnathan looks like, what he’s experiencing and how he got to his current state. I felt like he was sitting next to me, boisterously telling his story.”
For nearly two decades Seabaugh has covered, judged, and moderated panels at festivals including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Just for Laughs Montreal, SXSW, San Francisco Sketchfest, New York Comedy Festival, Just for Laughs Toronto, Sasquatch, Grand Rapids' Gilda's LaughFest, Montana's Big Sky Comedy Festival, Austin's Moontower, Portland's Bridgetown, the Seattle International Comedy Competition, Riot L.A., Nashville's Wild West Comedy Festival, and Atlanta's Laughing Skull.
Follow Julie on:
Twitter: @julieseabaugh
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We review the controversial Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage (directed by Garrett Price) out now on HBOMax.
Boomer nostalgia meets nu metal in a fight where no one wins. The ceremonies took place in Rome, New York in 1999, three decades after the initial Woodstock festival. Seemingly small logistics issues roll into a massive (and literal) shitshow, sprinkled with arson, sexual assaults, and at least one fatality.
Do Bill Simmons’ and HBO lay the blame where it belongs, or are they re-exploiting these events for a quick payday two decades later?
Our returning guest is Cory Sklar aka Chaki. Chaki is a funky alien wizard from Outer Space. With his unique take on electro funk, he has brought his weird ass stage show to festivals like Noise Pop and The Offbeat Fest. Chaki has shared the stage with like minded weirdos Peelander Z, El Vez, Bob Log III, Metalachi, Captured By Robots and The Oingo Boingo Dance Party.
We also have first-time guest Adam Papagan, a comedian, public access producer, and candidate for California Governor.
Follow Chaki on:
Twitter: @chakifunkwizard
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Twitter: @adampapagan
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George talks to musician Sam Mickens about one of his favorite docs LOST SOUL: THE DOOMED JOURNEY OF RICHARD STANLEY'S ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (2014, David Gregory)
It's the mid-'90s. British/South African horror director Stanley pitches a version of the H.G. Wells novel The Island of Dr. Moreau and New Line Cinema picks it up. Some huge movie stars get attached and the set becomes a war of egos, bad weather, worse attitudes, and inevitable chaos. Stanley is sent packing, but this is not the last we see of him.
Sam Mickens is a native Angeleno, musician, writer, multidisciplinary artist, and now President/head of programming for Another World is Possible, a new politics and culture streaming service and news network.
*Abuse accusations leveled against Stanley came to light in 2021.
Follow Sam on:
Twitter: @SamMickens
Instagram: @SamMickens
Follow Another World Is Possible on:
Twitter: @AWIPTV
Instagram: @AWIPTV
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Paco and George talk about some recent docs
THE SPARKS BROTHERS - (Edgar Wright, 2021) In Theaters / Purchase
THE DONUT KING (Alice Gu, 2020) Hulu
SUMMER OF SOUL (Questlove, 2021) Hulu
THE COCKETTES (Bill Weber & David Weissman, 2002) Documentary Plus
Controversy around Summer of Soul footage
We are also super excited about the upcoming Val Kilmer doc! George found footage of him at Pehrspace.
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We are talking about This Is Pop, the music documentary series currently streaming on Netflix. This is Pop uncover’s the real stories behind your favorite pop songs and charts the impact of the festival scene, Auto-Tune, boy bands and more. Our guest is Eric Scwartz who is almost featured prominently — in Episode 2 — simply named Auto-Tune. In this episode the producers examine how Auto-Tune is embraced and mocked, and shifts the pitch of the pop charts and changed the game for artists such as Cher, T-Pain and Kanye West.
One of the most creative and original comedians working today, Eric has earned the description, “everything there is to love about entertainment” (First Order Historians). GQ India names him one of “5 International Comics You Must Catch.” E! News Daily host Ryan Seacrest said Schwartz is “rocking the web” with “video that’s got everyone Googling” and Forbes.com applauds him for having “a minor industry in pop music parodies.”
A product of America’s melting pot, Eric was raised on the outskirts of Los Angeles in a Jewish and Mexican family during the golden age of hip hop. His entertainment career began when he spent his Bar Mitzvah money on DJ gear and began entertaining at parties and school dances, and eventually became one of the most popular DJs at entertainment-industry events. Not content to only speak with his hands, Eric never hesitated at an opportunity to get on the mic and make the audience laugh.
These would be the seeds to grow Eric’s style of musical comedy, leading him to television appearances on Showtime, The Tonight Show, Comics Unleashed, BET and his one-hour special, “Surrender to the Blender,” on Hulu. A pioneer of viral video, Eric has racked up over 100 million views on his stand-up clips, music videos and sketches. He has created content for and with with Grammy-winner Jason Mraz, Jo Koy, Tiffany Haddish, Craig Robinson, Anjelah Johnson, Disney, Yahoo, and more.
Eric is heard regularly as host and creator of Podcast: The Musical, where he conducts an interview and creates songs based on the conversation. He headlines across the country, in addition to opening for Jo Koy on his Just Kidding World Tour.
Follow Eric on:
Twitter:@ericschwartz
Instagram: @eeeericschwartz
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