John Early and Kate Berlant

Episode notes

(Photo: Maximum Fun / Kevin Ferguson)

John Early and Kate Berlant are comedians and frequent collaborators. As actors, Kate’s appeared in movies like Sorry to Bother You and Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. John has appeared on Search Party, 30 Rock and The After Party.

Their particular brand of comedy is surreal and a little unhinged. On stage, they veer between intense platonic love in one moment, and in others: seething contempt, thinly masked with backhanded compliments and probing questions. When they do sketches, it’s equally unhinged, but usually surreal and a little unnerving.

Their latest project is called Maddie’s Secret. Unlike most of their other work the movie is a very sincere, relatively straightforward movie about eating disorders. The film was written and directed by John. He stars as the movie’s title character: Maddie Ralph. Kate Berlant plays Deena, Maddie’s best friend.

John and Kate joined us on the program a few years ago. They talked with Jesse about their comedy special Would It Kill You to Laugh?, how they balance their creative partnership with their independent work and why Kate should have eaten a tuna melt before sitting down for her NPR interview.

A version of this interview originally aired in June of 2022.

In this episode...

Jesse Thorn

Host

Kevin Ferguson

Senior Producer

Jesus Ambrosio

Producer

Richard Robey

Maximum Fun Producer

Daniel Arón Speer

Video Editor

Hannah Moroz

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Guests

John Early
Kate Berlant

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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