HOW TO DO AN HOUR

Hi!

It’s time to start bullying our little sisters again. I have been scouring Depop for a vintage gown to wear to a fancy wedding at the end of the summer, but the app is flooding my feed with listings for that cheap ass looking green viral Princess Polly dress. It’s making me sick to my STOMACH. Almost every post mentions “barely worn” or “worn once.” I guess I’m glad people aren’t just tossing these plastic dresses into fake, parking lot donation bins, but come on.

Before we get into it, might I remind you that Kari and Elena¹ are teaching a dance class this Thursday at Rooted Space. It’s a fundraiser for Mira and I’s art show in June and the theme is 80s slumber party 😍 I’m also hosting a craft night on Monday to make some weird fabric tomatoes 🍅 

Also broooo, the two funniest people I know got engaged. Congrats Audrey and Jake <3333

Put on your boots…it’s time to ride

A few weeks ago I had the distinct pleasure of watching my dear friend Brigid Broderick’s “Horse Girl Nation”, a perverted little musical comedy show that is a thinly veiled fundraiser for lesbian horse surgery. The show is based on Brigid’s song (which she’s been doing since 2023) “Horses are Lesbians” where they explain to the audience that horses are all lesbians and want to get a surgery that makes it easier for them to scissor and 69 at the same time.

Brigid and I split an hour in January of 2024 at Cafe Mustache and then did the professional comedian thing of fine-tuning our jokes for a few months and did the show again last July at the California Clipper, but added the iconic cover band Superfloss to play live during our weirdo bits.

“Horse Girl Nation” was amazing and hilarious and a beautiful reminder that spending a lot of time on something can be epic if you let it be. But don’t take my word for it, you can read this glowing review. I caught up with Brigid after the show via Google Meet to talk scheduling, having a group of guys, and whether or not she’s funny in real life. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and to make me (the interviewer) seem smarter.

Were there any nonnegotiables for this show?

A live band. I'm not that good of a musician, and I'm fine with that. But it's so fun when people are good musicians. Having a live band is always worth it, but you do have to remind yourself of that while you're, like, renting a rehearsal space and trying to schedule a group of five adults. Everyone's so busy. Getting five people in a room for two hours…it's crazy.

It's the hardest part of what we do.

It's so unbelievably hard. But the people I chose to be in this band, I trust them with my life in such a cheesy improv way. It was like, “I got your back.”

Everyone on the stage has such an epic vibe. Like Dean [Sinclair], I’ve worked with him before and…Dean knows how to lead a damn band.

Oh my god. And he was out of town on tour until the day before the show, so he only got to rehearse with us one time. But he's such a pro. It's such a treat to work with Dean. He's so professional. I remember when I first asked him to be in a show, the second he started playing, I was like, “Oh, you're like, a drummer.” I can't believe he agrees to do my little two chord songs.

It's how I felt when I met Kari and Elena². I was like “Yeah, bitch, I'm putting you to work.” You know what I mean? Like, when you meet someone who's extremely talented, communicative, and also has good vibes? It's such a blessing to have a group of people like that. To me, that’s Chicago success: You have a group of guys you can call.

Literally having a group of guys you can call. I don't think I would have had this group of guys to call to make a band five years ago. It takes a while to know people and know how they work and know who's going to be down to play a comedy show. Because sometimes people aren't into that, which is so valid. 

Does it feel crazy to ask people to come to a full hour of comedy?

It feels insane. People's time and money are so precious. Everyone has 1 million jobs and no money. And to ask someone to spend an entire night at a venue, it feels insane. But it's extremely motivating to have a show be prepared and polished and funny and entertaining. 

I've been watching so much Drag Race and it's turning my brain to mush…but if you're asking someone to pay $12 and come to a show on a Thursday night…you better be putting on a fucking show.

If someone gave you $5,000 would you put on “Horse Girl Nation” again?

I have actually been feeling inspired about writing a play about the flies that are inside the boxes. Oh, you know what…How could I even explain this in an answer?

I'm gonna add a footnote about what's going on with the flies³, because that's…we can’t get into it right now.

If someone gave me $5,000, I would either write a play about the flies inside one of the millions of boxes that are getting dropped out of an airplane. It would be about sort of, love and loss and relationships within their box structure before the box explodes. Or I would write a show about the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader girls, because I love them. I love them so much. They are everything to me. I love Southern accents too.

Do you think you're funnier on stage or in real life?

I think I'm funnier in real life. Yeah, because in real life, I'm like, cracking the hell up at spreading my toes out all the way. I'm still figuring out a way to put that on stage.

When would you want us to take you out back like Old Yeller and put you down?

I think that when I can no longer bike around the city, listening to music in my headphones, then it's time to take me out back and shoot me.

My media diet

My job writing the Morning Brew Daily newsletter means I have to read everything so I get about 40-60 email newsletters a day. My inbox is a nightmare, but these are some of my favorites:

• 404 media is a journalist-founded media company with the best original reporting on AI, privacy, and tech. And full disclosure if you subscribe via this link, I could earn enough referrals to get a pair of 404 media socks. I realllllyyyy want them, but I would rec them even if I didn’t get merch.

• Block Club Chicago for updates on my neighborhood. You can personalize the newsletters you get from them. Big fan of their new food newsletter “Block Club Eats.”

• I love getting Deeper Into Movies. I’m always going “ahhh yes I need to watch that.”

• I have been super into Animation Obsessive recently, especially this interview about rejecting the slop economy with Chicago artist Jonni Peppers.

• FOOD IS POLITICS. Snaxshot is always a hit, but this will give you a…taste.

• Never Post is such a good podcast about internet culture and they just won a Webby!

• Erin In The Morning tracks every piece of trans legislation and offers some incredible analysis. Def recommend cancelling your Netflix or whatever and becoming a paid subscriber to this newsletter idk could be awesome.

• For awhile I thought I was just not a big travel girl, but I think maybe it’s because I have no frikin clue what I’m doing. Maybe Henah’s (first name basis, we are friends sorryyy) travel newsletter Departure will fix me.

• Ok, rapid fire because I see your eyes glazing over: Garbage Day for a good roundup of internet stuff, Zeteo for deeply reported independent journalism, Ankler’s Series Business for in-the-weeds TV industry stuff, This Stuff for fashion industry/sustainability deep dives, Embedded for even more internet stuff, Webworm for…fuck…more internet stuff, Trapital for entertainment news, obvi The Chicago Reader, Ann Friedman Weekly for thoughtful blurbs and long reads.

Next issue: I’m going to do a little status report on all of my weird ass projects this summer.

Thanks for reading and, as always, don’t tell me about any typos unless they are really bad.