Unknown Speaker 0:00 For going each person to someone in this room he's ready he's Twilight Sparkle your fucking Pinky by your pinky. Unknown Speaker 0:06 I'm definitely Pinky. Oh my, your flutter you're definitely Fluttershy Hey there, you're listening to the Chicago maroon arts podcast or for short the arts cast. I'll be your host Max Miller. And as usual, I'm joined by Samuel Landon and Shawn Park. Just kidding. Today were visited by a special guest host and full time editor of the podcast Parker me. I imagine you're all still shivering from the frigid temperatures here in Chicago. So I'll try my best to warm you guys up by letting you know about some lit art on campus. Get it? Guys. Next we'll feature a roundtable discussion about the theater scene in Chicago centered around a play that recently opened to rave reviews called the antelope party. It's a play about the caustic aftermath of what happens when bronies and right wing arrest Belters mix, and yes, I said bronies the adult age men who watched the children's TV Show My Little Pony obsessively and And ironically, finally, we'll round things out with an interview of an artist on campus named Jacob Johnson. He's a talented musician, generally wacky, blonde dude and a comedy rapper who goes by the stage name average Johnson. And you won't want to miss what happens when we whip out our average Johnson. Trust me. Anyway, stay tuned to my nails on a chalkboard voice for all the arts info you never knew you needed. First up, let's sit down with Haley grew and span maroon TV director and creative writer extraordinaire. Unknown Speaker 1:25 You're listening to Car Talk, but then I realized I don't know if that's NPR? I think so. I'm Haley grown spam Unknown Speaker 1:31 director for maroon TV. Unknown Speaker 1:34 Well, I'm not in charge of or TV. But I am a showrunner in modern TV. And I have my own show called Hide pork. Unknown Speaker 1:43 That's a very funny title. Is it a comedy? Yes. Unknown Speaker 1:46 It's a screwball comedy. Unknown Speaker 1:47 Okay. Basically, it's Unknown Speaker 1:48 about a bunch of kids who work in a restaurant in Hyde Park. And every episode ends in a fire. And they're all very dysfunctional human beings. And everything that can go wrong goes wrong. Unknown Speaker 1:59 So have you done any other shows or just type work? Unknown Speaker 2:02 I worked on a show called momentum that didn't go into production as of yet. But I did write an episode for that. And I just want to know, the sense of working on the writing team. And that was certainly interesting. But hide pork I actually wrote entirely by myself. And I'm directing by myself and all that. Well, is Unknown Speaker 2:18 that a challenge? Oh, yeah, Unknown Speaker 2:20 I did a lot of the episode writing over the summer. And for a comedy, it's, you know, it's hard to write, you know, like, you can't always be in a funny mood when you're writing sometimes you just have to crank it out if you have a deadline. And so that was really interesting process, just like, trying to find the humor and everything and going to various coffee shops. And like, at one point, I was in a coffee shop, and the shop was robbed in the middle of me writing and I was like, wow, okay. Unknown Speaker 2:44 Where are you from the chumps get robbed while you're riding Unknown Speaker 2:47 New York. And it was on the Upper West Side. Like it's not a neighborhood that goes robbery, okay. Yeah, it's just like, a couple guys came out and were like, give us your money. And then I felt terrible. And I was like, you went up to them? And like, I'm so sorry. Like, here's 20 bucks that was like stolen from the tip jar. Like, you know, what could I do? They were like, No, don't worry about it. You know, it happens. And I'm like, Wow, very casual. Unknown Speaker 3:08 That's really crazy. I imagine you're sitting in the corner, just like, I should write this into my show. Unknown Speaker 3:13 I mean, I did not actually just because it didn't fit into the ark. If I had a fifth episode, maybe. But I wanted to, I had a set number of episodes. And I was like, Okay, I'm gonna write these for I have the ideas for all of them. There's a limited amount of inspiration I can take Unknown Speaker 3:29 from someone who's having his life sort of taken over by trying to make this podcast in the first place. How many of your actors have enough time to commit to GB production like this? Unknown Speaker 3:38 Oh, it's a lot. I work really hard with the actors trying to like get work things into their schedules. Because actually, I was inspired because there's this movie that's terrible, called Movie 43. And it has all the stars in it for like, no reason. It's not compelling script, no one would sign on to that. But what I read was The people who tried to get it made, we literally just show up at all these events where the actors were, and it'd be like, hey, so you signed on to do movie? 43? When are we going to film that? And they were very adamant about getting it done. And it was done. And I don't want to do that to my actors. I hope my project does not move me 43. But I'm very much about working around people's schedules and saying, okay, you know, I know you're in, you know, for example, as you like it or what to do, but nothing. I'm gonna try to schedule all these shoots around you. I just want to get things done. And somehow it works out. I've managed to film the pilot in a quarter, which was, I still don't know how I did it. But at some point, I'm just like, okay, you know, everyone was acting in it. You have to have this weekend off, we have to film them. I really think we need to get this done. And people are really willing to Unknown Speaker 4:41 so where can we go to see this TV show? Should we want to view it? Unknown Speaker 4:46 Oh, it's going to be on YouTube? Probably around March. Okay. It's gonna be on the maroon TV YouTube channel. And yeah, I have to just basically finish the other three episodes and then it's going to be in post I'm going to upload it. And that's going to be crazy. Unknown Speaker 5:03 It's Fingers crossed. That's amazing. Yeah, Unknown Speaker 5:05 I'm really happy. It's been a wonderful thing to work on. Unknown Speaker 5:11 Alright, so guys, today I want to tell you about a play that I got the chance to see at the theater wit. It's called the antelope party. And crazy enough, it's got on the cover the poster for this for this play. It's called the handle party. It has a picture of a my little pony pony, and it's wearing a Donald Trump hat that says, you know, it would say make America great again. But in this case, it says make antelopes great again. And so you start to realize in the course of the play that the antelopes are this neighborhood watch turned rogue kind of right wing organization that is opposed to the bronies. And they're they're just friendship cars. And you start to see whether or not the bronies will be able to survive the intrusion of the antelopes and their right wing ways into their fold of friendship and forgiveness and stability. Unknown Speaker 5:57 Max, how did they get that cover photo from your private stash and pictures? Unknown Speaker 6:04 You know, I haven't shown anyone my private stash. So I'm, I'm just as surprised as you are. But what really struck me about the play was that it navigated a line between comedy and drama in a very inspiring way, in a way that made me sympathize so deeply with the bronies, even though I am not currently a brony. Unknown Speaker 6:21 Yeah. So I do think that's something hard that plays have to do, which is, especially in this case, you know, taking something that seems kind of ridiculous prompt and turning into something meaningful. And so from what you're saying, it sounds like they're ended up completing that task. Unknown Speaker 6:39 Yeah. Because the Brony is in the play are trying to escape reality. And what happens is, you start to see reality creep into their circle of imagination and pick at the sort of shop at the the roots of their friendship, the roots of their values, what made them so good as bronies and as people, because they got to explore these great values, such as friendship and kindness to one another that they got from the kids show. And it makes you see bronies not so much as these freaks that should be castigated from society. But as those who embrace more closely values that have been trampled under the hooves of a society, that, that cares more about economics and, you know, pro life and right wing causes and things that don't necessarily look out for every person in the world. Max, I find it very Unknown Speaker 7:30 interesting with what you said about this idea of the bronies exemplifying this friendship and this sort of tight community, which exemplifying this tight community as opposed to sort of sort of this economic ideal that the antelopes seem to exemplify. Yeah, they're very utilitarian which which is really interesting, this idea that like the the the right wing, Angela trying to be, you know, quote, unquote, conservative going against the bronies, who are exemplifying this, this very old idea of community. So it's sort of like this, almost this like, near I mean, it's neoconservatism versus like this true, much older conservatism and that juxtaposition of one against the other seems very interesting. It's exactly way to do it through the lens of bronies. Yeah, Unknown Speaker 8:14 no, I think the driving force between what caused their transformation was the appeal to being popular do you appeal to fitting in? Unknown Speaker 8:25 My name is Jacob Johnson. I'm a third year majoring in the history and philosophy of science. And you are a comedy rapper as well. I am a comedy rapper. Yeah, that is. That is one way to describe it. I go by the rapper name of average Johnson. Nice. Most mediocre rapper known to mankind, Unknown Speaker 8:46 that in itself is a bold claim less than mediocre. Unknown Speaker 8:49 Yeah, well, I mean, I think, you know, the signs were there. Ever since my birth, I mean, I was like, seven pounds. 18 inches, like, the doctors told my parents that it was like a statistical impossibility that I could like, exactly meet the 50th percentile for human beings. But, but that was it, you know, and basically, you know, that's, that's what my life ended up being. You know, I was just, in general, a very mediocre person. Like, my parents were like, Yeah, we this is a kid, you know. Like, I think my most notable accomplishment was like in it. Like when I was six years old. I like, won a karate trophy and, and shocks. And then I think that was my peak. I've kind of been on a steady decline ever since then. Yeah. So you know, just to give you some more background. Yeah, I mean, I just, it's not that I like intend to do it. But I do just now somehow just fit into the 50th percentile, no matter how hard I try. So that's average. Unknown Speaker 9:55 I mean, not many people make comedy reps. I tried my worst like I couldn't even get out. Okay, so Unknown Speaker 10:03 next I'll give you $5. You let me hear your account on your apps. Oh, Unknown Speaker 10:06 I think we'll know but you're good. You have a wide range you play saxophone, right. I Unknown Speaker 10:16 do play saxophone. That's right. Yeah. My dad was a, trained as a saxophonist, and he taught me, you know, basically, all of what I know, I would say, well, in saxophone, jazz. Unknown Speaker 10:30 Was you disappointed in your average? Unknown Speaker 10:32 Um, you know, he's grown to accept it. I think, you know, I mean, my parents were never like disappointed, but they were never impressed either. You know, it's just it's very, neither over underwhelmed. Just whelmed. Unknown Speaker 10:45 Yeah. Has this gig gotten you girls or the attention of people on campus? Has this cotton meet girls? Or guys? I don't judge. Unknown Speaker 10:55 I mean, I think like it like temporarily does and then they quickly realize their mistake. Like they're like, oh, like Yeah, okay. Your rap was cool. But um, you know, this this guy. He's like, I mean, my name is My name is average John Cena we know what I'm saying. Like, it's not like you know, I'm like they don't realize morning package. You know, it's rewarding fact. Unknown Speaker 11:23 That's my rapper name rewarding pack. Oh, God. Unknown Speaker 11:26 I didn't realize how literal The name was. Unknown Speaker 11:27 Yes, they did not. And I tried to spell it out for them to but you know, what can I do? Expected? I've you know, been able to perform at some really cool places. I've opened for off off campus at the revival for the shows. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And that's fine. You know that that's awesome. I love doing the ad and I think I think the nature of the comedy routines that often and my rap music actually synergizes pretty well. So yeah, that's always fun. Yeah, and and another thing I've tried to do is kind of blend this comedy rap genre with jazz improvisation a little bit you know, it's just I think also it's just part of my my background as well. Unknown Speaker 12:10 Could you play a little saxophone for us? Is that too much to ask? Unknown Speaker 12:14 Yeah, sure. I can I can also wrap a little bit for sure. Anything Unknown Speaker 12:21 baybay your son Shahar say it's the love of the man but I want your boss to die even time is right but the young kid late we need to find another place can wait my roommate. Oh wait. I gotta think of something fast at this school it could be my one and only chance thought of something Judy just relax now we'll go up so fine with a shelf of playdough just be Hi such a sexy creature up against some Nietzsche I'm talking to max having sex beam and how's that gone when the wave do the problems gets my penis grow and so now I'm hot it stopped Chicago Code from Midway mark down to Mansueto okay, we can think about anything else. Well hey, let's do some bio from behind that shall want to live into and nobody is peeping through the cracks can well Unknown Speaker 13:49 I don't know about you guys. But after interviewing average Johnson it's comforting to know that I'm not the only one Unknown Speaker 13:54 any way what a great talent and he goes to our very own university to for more of his comedy beat dropping skills. Be sure to check out his SoundCloud page under the name average Johnson. Unknown Speaker 14:03 This has been our show ladies and gentlemen, and thank you, as usual for tuning in. If you like what you heard, listen to our sister podcasts, the maroon weekly for all the incredibly boring news that doesn't have to do with arts. Thank you and have a great week. Unknown Speaker 14:13 Shake up I want to be a train we've been over this Jacob you can't be a train watch me. Oh, if I was a train, I'll be dope no better than the Pope. They want me chugging down by the rails bow and smoke got me started on two tracks but my fame Yep, the rails. Nobody would want to take a plane sail and come upon the room hotter. Then you want to degrees going 60 miles an hour Anna powered by steam Transcribed by https://otter.ai