Judd Apatow & Romesh Ranganathan

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Jesse Thorn

Society & Culture

4.5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2017

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Judd Apatow is one of the busiest and most notable behind the scenes guys alive today. Name 10 huge critically acclaimed comedy hits off the top your head - Judd's probably worked on half of them: The Larry Sanders Show, Knocked Up, Bridesmaids, Funny People, The Big Sick, Train Wreck, Girls - it just goes on and on. But now, for the first time in over 25 years, he's back on stage. He's been performing live for the last couple years and now he's got his first ever hour long special. It's called Judd Apatow: The Return and it debuts on Netflix this week. Then, Romesh Ranganathan. He's a British stand up and TV host. And while he might not be a household name stateside, he's looking to change that. Romesh just rented a giant amphitheater in Los Angeles for his big debut - it seats nearly 6,000 people. When we first heard about this in November, he'd sold only 74 tickets. Jesse talks with him about why he's doing it, how his family's past informed his comedy, and what it's like going from crying in a corporate bathroom stall to selling out concert halls in London... and hopefully LA.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, think back on 2017. Were there any surprises? Anything you weren't expecting? Any stories you
0:07.8	thought you knew, but it turned out you didn't? I bet there were, and I bet that when you listen to
0:12.8	NPR, you got the real story. You learn something. Every year is full of new stories and new perspectives
0:19.2	on old stories and new understandings of the way the world works, and I bet that NPR is one of the
0:24.8	big places you get at information. If you love Bullseye and you love the news work that NPR does
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0:38.2	for supporting them. Go to donate.npr.org slash Bullseye. That's donate.npr.org slash Bullseye to give.
0:48.1	Then once you have, share why you gave with the hashtag why public radio. Let's keep learning
0:54.2	together. Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
1:07.2	I'm Jesse Thorn. So I'm just stating to obvious, but good comedy and especially good stand-up
1:13.1	comedy often draws from pain. I mean, I think we all know that, right? I mean, you joke about a
1:19.8	breakup. Maybe it stings a little less. A little more time, a few more tags, and all of a sudden
1:26.1	you've got some material, right? Well, Judd Apatow, the director, producer, and these days also stand-up.
1:33.7	Those that too. It's very common in comedy. It's kind of how things work, but he says the sad thing is,
1:41.2	if you're a comedian, it kind of messes up the way your brain reacts to tragedy.
1:46.0	It changes your brain in a very specific way, which is when bad things happen, you're kind of excited
1:51.3	because you can turn it into something of value. So I threw out the first pitch at the Metz game
1:58.9	and it did not go well. And as soon as it happened, I thought, well, at least that went so bad
2:05.6	that it'll make for a funny story. And in a way, as a comedian, that's the thing you have that most
2:11.4	people don't have, is the second something weird that's just so painful happens. Party of
2:18.0	brain goes, I'm so glad it happened. This is going to be hilarious to tell people about.
2:23.9	So I guess we've got the worst-case scenario down for the next hour. It's bullseye.
	...

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