February 2012

Episode 078 of the podcast featured Stephen Markley. He’s a writer/author. He’s got credits coming out of his fingertips. We met at an open mic about a year ago. He wasn’t there to do comedy but instead did a brief reading from his book, Publish This Book. We chatted briefly about doing the podcast and ten months later I remembered and invited him on. Here’s the result:

out of context quotes:

“No one’s ever had a healthy relationship. It just doesn’t exist.”

“It’s like a choose-your-own-adventure except someone already made the choices for you. AKA a book.”

Direct Download: 2012.01.26_WL_078_-_Stephen_Markley.mp3

Download via iTunes

Listen Right Here:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Stephen also writes a regular column for the Red Eye called Off the Markley that covers movies, politics and culture. I’ve become a regular reader of it and you should to. The guy is pretty good at putting words together and as a person who for a long time wanted to put words together for a living I can express only heartfelt jealousy at his publishing achievements.

Always judge a book by its author.

It’s a real book, by the way. By a real publisher, made of real paper and real ink. (digital versions available). The guy isn’t even in his 30s and he already published a book, which makes me think I gotta finish one of the several novels I started between video game/masturbation/confusion sessions in college. I got this one idea. It takes place in the future. The world has run out of oil. People cook with butter only. The two leads are more alike than they’d care to admit, two sides of the same loin, you might say. After implausibly trading identities they match wits, recipes and more throughout the story in a race-against-thyme free-range thriller that spans the Northern Illinois Metropolitan region. It’s called Butter Face Off. It’s mostly just dudes running and beating each other up with prison trays. There’s also a single sentence multi-page sex scene to keep the reader excited. And some shit about insect-shaped cars. I’ll start chapter 2 eventually.

So yeah, check it out. It’s a great episode that covers a lot of ground, from the usual Winners and Losers fare of body fluids and body fluid harvesting to the intricacies of the literary world, with a good dose of politics for you head-nodders out there. We figure out Lost and share our most intimate desires in another round of ROMANTIC FANTASIES, which is a segment we do on the show where I make guests uncomfortable by asking them to describe a romantic fantasy. Stephen’s not a comedian by trade but he seems to think like one, which is probably a compliment?

I’d like to have him on the show again to talk movies and politics and to argue about all sorts of things about which I’m too ignorant to have an opinion.

{ 0 comments }