Brandon Bassham: The Writer Behind My Sketches
KEY MOMENTS
0:00 – Intro: comedy writer and director Brandon Bassham
0:56 – How Lou and Brandon started working together
3:29 – Can we forgive Obama's Netflix deal?
5:39 – Political comedy and bad-faith critics
9:00 – The Westworld Yelp reviews sketch
10:11 – Hari Kondabolu and The Problem with Apu
14:49 – Hank Azaria's apology and immigrant accents
16:43 – The Problem with Bumblebee Man
18:36 – William Friedkin's Cruising and a remake pitch
22:03 – Bring on the Damned: a five-story horror anthology
23:46 – Upcoming screenings in Mexico City, Teaneck, and Queens
25:36 – How Brandon twists horror genres
28:27 – Working with Troma Entertainment
31:17 – Plans for a volume two on a $20,000 budget
34:48 – 80s horror on HBO and late-night TV
36:49 – Why Brandon moved from comedy to horror
38:45 – Zombie movies and working through demons
41:13 – A stabbing in Brooklyn and a GoFundMe for grief
43:21 – Growing up in Polk County, Florida
46:01 – Always an outsider who gets along with everyone
47:49 – Lou's Texas tour and doing the same material anywhere
50:16 – Getting audiences to laugh at strange ideas
52:03 – Robert Schimmel and Brandon's mom
54:14 – Johnny Carson sets and the Jerky Boys
56:47 – Can you teach comedy?
59:34 – Comic timing and decades of experience
1:01:48 – The "straight white man" knock in comedy
1:03:23 – Late-night TV's decline and wrap-up
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Brandon Bassham, the writer behind some of Lou's favorite sketches and darkest jokes over the past 10 years, joins Lou to talk about horror, comedy, and his work with Troma.
We also get into the best horror movies, writing "The Problem with Bumblebee Man," his feature film Fear Town, USA, his latest, Bring on the Damned! (featuring Lou in a small but memorable sex-creep role), and the great Robert Schimmel, a dirty comic so good even Brandon's mother, who hated dirty comics, loved him.