Guy Branum

27th August 2018

A favorite from the Bullseye archives this week. First up: Comedian, writer, and podcast host Guy Branum recently wrote a book called “My Life as a Goddess: A Memoir through (Un)Popular Culture.” It’s a collection of personal essays. Kind of a combination of memoir and manifesto that covers his childhood, college, his early days as comic. It’s also got his opinions on football movies, politics, and which city has the hottest guys (It’s Los Angeles, btw).
We’re revisiting our conversation with Guy from last year where he sat down with Jesse to discuss his truTV series Talk Show The Game Show.
Then, academic and writer Emily Lordi, author of the 33 ⅓ book Donny Hathaway’s Live tells us why she thinks the classic Hathaway live performance deserves to be added to the canon of all time great albums. Then, Jesse tells us about why he loves the Errol Morris ESPN documentaries, It’s Not Crazy, It’s Sports.

Episode notes

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Photo:Jesse Thorn
Guy Branum On His New TV Show and The Importance of Being Charming
Guy Branum is a comedian, writer, actor, podcaster, and host of his own TV show: Talk Show The Game Show. He recently published a book out in stores now. It’s called “My Life as a Goddess: A Memoir through (Un)Popular Culture,” so we’re re-playing our conversation with him from last year.

Before his career in media, Guy had his sights set on being a lawyer, completing a law degree and passing the bar exam before leaving that life behind. He realized he had an overwhelming passion for pop culture, and he began his career in stand-up. Eventually, he landed a writing and commentator position on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, and was a writer on The Mindy Project. He is the host of Bullseye’s sister show and Maximum Fun’s own Pop Rocket podcast.

In this extended interview, Guy tells Jesse about his show and some of the challenges that came with creating it. He shares what it was like growing up gay in a farming town outside of Sacramento, his journey of coming out to his family and friends, and why he uses the word “charming” so often.

You can watch Guy’s show every Thursday at 11/10c on truTV.

Click here to listen to Guy Branum’s interview on YouTube.


Photo: Spotify
Cannonball: Donny Hathaway’s Live
Academic and writer Emily Lordi makes the case for why Donny Hathaway’s live album deserves to be added to the canon of classic music. She tells us why this 1972 record, largely made up of covers of other people’s songs, is so essential to understanding the black artistic experience at the time.

If you want to know more about this album, Emily’s 33 ⅓ book on the album is out now.

Click here to listen to Cannonball: Donny Hathaway’s Live on YouTube.

The Outshot: It’s Not Crazy, It’s Sports

Photo: ESPN

Jesse tells us why there is no better person to capture the crazy things athletes and fans do than the documentarian Errol Morris.

Click here to listen to The Outshot on YouTube.

In this episode...

Senior Producer
Producer
Maximum Fun Producer
Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Guests

  • Guy Branum
  • Emily Lordi

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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