Naomi Snieckus: The Rules Of Improv (And Life)

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  0:02  
The Women Of Ill Repute with your hosts Wendy Mesley and Maureen Holloway.

Wendy Mesley  0:07  
So Maureen, we've been doing this little podcast for a while. Sometimes. Like with the person we're about to do, we kind of go all over the map. You know, we laugh, we cry, we fall down, we, you know, you get up, off all that stuff.

Maureen Holloway  0:21  
We fall down, we get up again. This week, we are going back to the laughter part. I hope so. I take this, you know, I take laughter quite seriously. I'm a scholar of comedy.

Wendy Mesley  0:31  
Oh, dear, here we go, go go on.

Maureen Holloway  0:33  
I will. Because I've worked in comedy for most of my life, and I've even studied comedy, as you know, in grad school. Yes. I like to think that I'm an expert.

Wendy Mesley  0:42  
Oh this is gonna be great. Do go on. 

Maureen Holloway  0:44  
Oh, it is. Okay, well, quite seriously, women have historically been shut out of comedy, culturally speaking, because nothing sucks the fun out of funny than a discussion on why things were funny. But here we are.

Wendy Mesley  0:59  
Yeah. Well, as you can see, if you're watching us on on YouTube, we're here with Naomi Snieckus
. She was on before but we had technical problems. So now she's back. She has a lot of thoughts on comedy because she basically does that for a living. She is a comedic actor. She's a writer. She's a producer. She's director say she's been to Second City. She's performed on stage.

Maureen Holloway  1:20  
 Oh no she knows she's she's not. She's been in Second City. We've all been to Second City. 

Wendy Mesley  1:24  
Well, I've been but I haven't been on. She's been on not yet. She has been on Second City. She was also in on by around the series. Mr. D. Lots and lots of TV shows. I think she did Degrassi, Franklin The Turtle frankly, Survivors.  Frank, Franklin's funny. There's there's comedy there. No Saw 3D. Yeah, funny. Yeah, The Swap. Anyway, if you see her, you know her. She's a very familiar face. She has. She has two podcasts, she's done one with her husband, Matt Baram called Baram & Snieckus, what what a coincidence. And another that she's done, it's kind of over now, but it's still there. So you can still check her out. She did it with Amanda Bruegel. The actor who was, is kind of famous. It's called the Blaze Sessions and she did that through the firecracker department.

Maureen Holloway  2:15  
Amanda Bruegel is in The Handmaid's Tale, which is funny. Anyway. Well, there's comedy there somewhere is there always is a little bit of humor Margerite Atwood would make sure that. Naomi joins us today to talk about improv, you know, a spontaneous, unscripted comedy as opposed to stand up or sketch but it's not that spontaneous. There are rules in improv the first being that you and your improv partner or partners have to agree about what you're creating. So if I say for example, you were here we are at sea. You don't say no, we're not you say qye aye captain.

Wendy Mesley  2:52  
But, but then what happens if I, if I get seasick? I'd rather be on an aeroplane. I'm kidding. That's reverse improv.

Maureen Holloway  3:10  
No, there's no such thing as reverse improv.

Wendy Mesley  3:13  
I just don't like the idea of you being captain. But here we go.

Maureen Holloway  3:15  
It's too late. Here we go. Naomi Snieckus joins us again. Naomi thank you so much for doing this. 

Naomi Snieckus  3:21  
Hi It's so I mean, I'll take a chance to hang out with you two, for two times in a row. That sounds fantastic. I won't complain about that. 

Maureen Holloway  3:30  
I want to ask you just off the top because we've had these these issues. What's What's the worst unplanned? Improv is all about taking whatever gets thrown at you and making it work and making it shine? But what is the worst situation that you have ever found yourself in, onstage or in an improv? Be it another person or be it an audience member or what?

Naomi Snieckus  3:54  
Oh, there's a lot. I know in improv, you say that there's no like mistakes. They're all just gifts. They're all opportunities. So this wasn't a mistake that we have to record it twice. It's an opportunity that we get to hang out twice, or that we get to have a conversation that maybe goes deeper. So I don't know. Gosh, there's some fantastic improv mishaps, you know, costumes falling off, audience members being part of it. You know, it's not funny, but somebody did recommend like when he asked for a suggestion, they suggested genocide, which I would say that might have been the trickiest way.

Maureen Holloway  4:32  
Did you make it work?

Naomi Snieckus  4:33  
I think we ended up doing like a genocide in like a, like a high school drama like, so. I don't know. It was really it was no easy, but we you know, you really have to steer the ship. You know, you gotta get the-

Wendy Mesley  4:46  
Yeah, there's not a lot of laughs and genocide. 

Naomi Snieckus  4:48  
I haven't been through a genocide but I can't imagine it being very funny.

Maureen Holloway  4:52  
Yeah, for either on either side. Yes. Well, like so I think life as an improv there are no real I mean, there are obstacles but the you can look at them as challenges and opportunities.

Wendy Mesley  5:06  
Well Maureen keeps trying to teach me that life is about or at least a podcast, which is also life, of course, is all about. 'Yes and' which is like one of the big rules in improv, right. And yet I was raised with no, no, like, I'm a journalist. I'm not a comedian. I'm like a no, no, you used to say this. It's all very polite, of course it doesn't do so do you are-

Maureen Holloway  5:30  
You are questioning everything that your partner says I suppose.

Wendy Mesley  5:34  
No, but no, but your your pants are on fire. So- 

Naomi Snieckus  5:38  
Oh, my gosh, I missed that interview of you interviewing the guy with the pants off. That was hard hitting journalism. I don't know. I think that's interesting. Like we always say the yes and you know, and there's there's exceptions to every rule, right? So, yes and is saying like you have an agreement? Yes is the agreement to the idea and as the building of it. So you're not just saying yes, and you keep building it. But I don't even I think with journalism still like you're saying, you know, yes, I hear what you're saying and then you also say this, like I think there is like I think you don't give yourself credit for being a yes ander. Because I think no, but just stops conversation. We all, we all heard it when somebody says like, Well, I'm really sorry, I did this. But like all that, but kind of disqualified the apology. So I think it's all just like trying to communicate and keep people engaged.

Wendy Mesley  6:29  
So what are the rules, Maureen, you're you're the expert. 

Maureen Holloway  6:32  
No, I'm not. No, no, Naomi is the expert. I'm just a scholar.

Naomi Snieckus  6:38  
Well, listen, I think like, you know, we, you'll see shows that like Matt and I do and you'll be like, but you said no to ideas. I think it's like, we're collaborating, right? The game, the name of the game is collaboration. So whatever we can do to keep in collaboration is what we're trying to accomplish. So if I say, you know, what did you say if here we are on a ship? And I say, no, it's not a ship? But gosh I wish it was it's just a dinghy. Ah, I dream of a ship. So you know what I'm saying? I'm saying no to something, but I'm introducing another idea. So we're still in collaboration.

Wendy Mesley  7:12  
I've been on a boat with Maureen and her husband and he's the captain and she has to say aye aye captain, because he's the guy.

Maureen Holloway  7:20  
Well, that's, that's a that's a difference to me. Now, you're, you're taking the situation, literally, but it's not a bad one. There has to be a boss and I wonder sometimes watching troops and I've seen everybody from the Upright Citizens Brigade to make fantastic improv troops. And you want I mean, if and if they're doing it seamlessly, it doesn't look like there's somebody in charge. But I wonder is there somebody in charge.

Naomi Snieckus  7:44  
I always think of improv as being like the cast of Wizard of Oz. Like you need somebody that brings the brains you need, somebody brings the courage and you brought somebody brings the heart, and you need somebody who tells the story, goes down the yellow brick road. So again, like that, kind of like working together aspect, I think that if you don't have a story, the story person is going to start turn up and be like, let's guide it, let's guide it. And if we don't have a heart, the heart person is going to turn up. So I think it's all sort of being responsible for whatever your strength is. That's That being said, like, I would say my role is usually in our troop is usually bringing heart. And Matt, my husband is usually doing like story. But if Matt's not in that night that I'll take over and story. You know what I mean? Like you'll sort of switch switch roles, but I don't think there is a leader I think good. Improv is sort of leading together and following together.

Maureen Holloway  8:31  
Only life was like that, if only we could live like that.

Naomi Snieckus  8:34  
I think it can be we just have to like, I think it's interesting. You know, there's a lot of things that we say in the improv of you don't have to build a huge cathedral, you just have to bring a brick. So I'm not gonna go in there and say, All right, everybody, you listen to me, it's gonna be like this. I'm gonna say, what about this and this and somebody else is gonna go what about this and this so that actually there's this beautiful ownership over the story, as opposed to one person leading and everybody, well, they lead it's their story, which I think is important.

Wendy Mesley  8:59  
Someone was telling me about an improv couple. Colin Mochrie and Debra McGrath. 

Naomi Snieckus  8:59  
I've heard of them up and comers. 

Wendy Mesley  8:59  
Yeah, yeah, they're kind of up and comers there. Yeah, they're like 12, but that they were that they started off an improv session, because that's what they're experts at. And they started off saying, this is all about you. It's all about the audience. And whatever you give us will determine whether it's great or not, never goes on, hey, I don't know. So it's like, and eventually, like they warmed everybody up and everybody really got into it. But it's, I think it's hard for outsiders, to know and to trust because otherwise, it can really suck if they don't play.

Naomi Snieckus  9:41  
Yeah, I think it's a great point that you need to trust your improvisers. And that comes at the very beginning, right. If you step on stage, and you're like, ah, we don't care what we're doing tonight. It's just garbage. Go screw yourself, then I'm gonna be like, well, if you don't care, I don't care, nut if you stand on stage and go, Oh my gosh, we're thrilled that you can be here, I'm thrilled to tell a story with you because it's the DNA of the group right. It's the actors on stage and the audience's off stage that collaborate to make I'm using collaborate a lot, but I believe that it is sort of like, and the joy of improv is that we can turn it like if you see a show, and you're like, Well, this is a stinker of a show. There's nothing you can do. It's gonna be the same every night. But in improv, I can we can feel the audience when we're losing them. And we can twist it and adjust it to being something that they maybe connect with more.

Maureen Holloway  10:32  
Here's a question. What makes a good audience?

Naomi Snieckus  10:35  
That's interesting. I think just an audience that cares. An audience that cares that audience. I mean, even if they want, they want to be there. We've had audiences before that are like, grumpy, and they don't seem they want to be there. But then we win them over.

Maureen Holloway  10:51  
Maybe they don't like jokes about genocide. Think about that? 

Naomi Snieckus  10:55  
You're right. I shouldn't be so judgmental.

Maureen Holloway  10:59  
Maybe that's where they draw the line.

Wendy Mesley  11:01  
Is there a line? Like how do you know like, genocide is not very funny. 

Maureen Holloway  11:07  
But I would say anything could be funny if you just massage it properly. 

Naomi Snieckus  11:13  
Yeah or if you're smart enough, like I do think you've had to play to the highest level of your intelligence. So if we're dumbing things down and doing a lot of like, poopoo bum bum jokes? I don't know. That doesn't really inspire me. So we have a poopoo bumbum show coming up Maureen that you're welcome to come.

Maureen Holloway  11:33  
Certain words are funnier. Have you heard this? I mean, I've read a lot about this kind of thing that certain words are funnier than other words, like the letter K is funny. If it's got a k in it. It's funny. A certain numbers are funnier than others. You've heard this as well.

Wendy Mesley  11:47  
Unless there's three, there's three Ks are not very funny. No, but.

Naomi Snieckus  11:56  
You know, I'm sure there's people in that organization that are arrived. But listen, I think cheese cheese, if you throw cheese around, that's a real good word to throw. It's just funny. You can't not laugh at cheese.

Wendy Mesley  12:08  
So is humor changing? I mean, is it is improv changing? Or is it I mean, there's obviously some things you've got to be more careful of these days, but generally, like poopoo and, is that still funny?

Naomi Snieckus  12:25  
You know, we were talking about this just the other day, because I was so inspired by a show that Kathy Greenwood and Jonathan Wilson and Ed Sahali used to do called not to be repeated, which was they just chose lines out of baskets, and they would do a full play and I was so inspired by that. And Matt and I do similar things where we do long form, plays, improvised plays, but I think it's the same, like well, will sort of repeat formats with different I don't know, different tones, different facts. Like it's all I think it's all going to, I think comedy will be comedy forever, like guy or girl or a person slipping on a banana peel, I think you'll always find amusing. 

Maureen Holloway  13:02  
Well, people keep slipping on them. 

Wendy Mesley  13:05  
We don't see that many banana peels anymore, which is probably a good thing. 

Naomi Snieckus  13:09  
That's it. Also, trash has gotten better in the world. So I think that helps.

Maureen Holloway  13:13  
But there is misery around. And we keep coming back to this when we talk to funny people, strangely enough, that there is sadness or grievances behind every joke. And so if that becomes a contradiction, when you know, there's so many things that well, that's not funny. Well, the fact that it's not funny, it's funny, to you know, go peel back the layers of something I'm after 911 Do remember, however, when we say well, the age of irony is over. That's it. Nobody can be funny anymore since the worst possible tragedy. But of course, the fact of the matter is for 1000s of years, humanity's been experiencing the worst possible tragedies. And still, and still we laugh, we've got a laugh. Yeah, as they say it tragedy plus time equals comedy. So it might not be funny. Like if you think about your the worst days that you've had might not be funny that day. But as you distance yourself, I'm sure you're able to find something funny. And that's the thing that's relatable, like we relate to people because they find humor in things or they find absurdity and things when we're saying like if I presented myself as, you know, a perfect, like, nothing ever goes wrong. Nobody's gonna be able to relate to me. So we've all we've all dealt with trauma in different ways. And we have to laugh at it. Gosh.

Wendy Mesley  14:23  
I've been, turning 60 I started like having deep thoughts about life. 

Maureen Holloway  14:29  
Pp until then, it was just a complete bimbo.

Naomi Snieckus  14:33  
Just a 60 day, Wendy? That just started?

Wendy Mesley  14:41  
But to get better. I mean, like, I do have all of these deep thoughts and they're getting very, very deep now. But are you, are you getting better or does it I don't know. I also find that my recall isn't quite as quick. So I mean, how does it bounce off my great wisdom with my, my-

Naomi Snieckus  14:58  
Wait, do I get better at recall? Do I I get better- 

Wendy Mesley  15:00  
At improv. Yeah, like, are you, do you get funnier as you get older? Or does it get more scary to like, walk out walk that plank?

Maureen Holloway  15:07  
That's an interesting question. How what happens to your sense of humor, either as a person who is funny or is a person who appreciates humor as you get older? Neither of those is if that's the question you're asking Wendy, I would presume?

Wendy Mesley  15:20  
Yeah, I think everything's funny. But then maybe that's the problem.

Naomi Snieckus  15:25  
I think it's muscles, right? I think it's like the even the muscle of having these kinds of conversations, if we aren't communicating, and we aren't integrating into collaborating again, thank you. My word for the day is collapsed. So I think we got we lose our muscles, our muscles become flabby in that sense. So if I wasn't on stage, if I wasn't improvised, if I didn't live with an improviser, all those things, I think helped my my brain function on a on a quicker level. You know, you talk to somebody like Colin Mochrie, the thing that he I think he's always been like this, but he's like one of the most patient improvisers you'll ever see. He'll stay off out of a scene. They'll let all the chaos and the improvisers run around circles. And then he'll come in and lay down a joke. That is like, killer, killer, killer killer like he's done shows with us before that. I remember like working so hard, we're setting up characters. We're setting up shows he'd come on. And he would and I remember him spitting a candy into his hat and putting the hat back on, and then walking offstage and he just brought the house down. It was he's a sniper he's a sniper. So I think it's muscles you gotta keep your muscles going.

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  16:43  
The Women Of Ill Repute.

Maureen Holloway  16:46  
Tell me about or tell us about being married. As you mentioned both you and Matt are improvisers. Now my husband is not in remotely in any kind of performative business and engineer. You can try to get think of an instance where it was but but if we were arguing sometimes I could disarm him, right? Like we could. If I can keep it together. If I can make them laugh. Well, then it's over. Right? You can't, you can't laugh at me and I'm wondering what's it like for do improvisers do you do that? Is that in either of your Arsenal's or?

Naomi Snieckus  17:25  
Yeah, I've either always bits right and saying, I'm bringing Colin and Deb into this too, because we talked about this how you always have bits, but I think that goes whether you're improvisers so it's not like you always have, you know, that famous story where that funny thing happened, but that will come back or, you know, like, we both had to go pee at the same time. And I got up and he was like, oh, is there a lineup? Like four o'clock in the morning, Joe?

Maureen Holloway  17:54  
You're, I'm assuming you're at your cottage. Do you have one bathroom? Yeah, exactly. Boys go outside.

Naomi Snieckus  17:59  
You're right. What's wrong with him? Go outside.

Maureen Holloway  18:02  
We were the same situation.

Naomi Snieckus  18:03  
So do I. He owns the cottage. 

Wendy Mesley  18:07  
But not poopoo

Naomi Snieckus  18:09  
I mean, are you judging me Wendy?

Wendy Mesley  18:10  
I'm stuck on the poopoo? I obviously think that's funny.

Maureen Holloway  18:16  
But then I think the words funny.

Wendy Mesley  18:19  
Yeah. Tell us about Firecracker. Like what? You set up this department? I think it was in the wake of me to write or anyway, tell us about how that all got goinga nd how funny this is. Tell us a little bit.

Naomi Snieckus  18:33  
 Well, I mean, it's the chats, right? It's like I love it's like what you're doing to you that like you love having chats with folks and finding it. Like more in depth discussion, as opposed to soundbite discussion that I think we all got used to before podcasts, perhaps. So yeah, it was a little bit in the wake of me too. But we were we had started the podcast, firecracker department, and we've got 150 episodes now. And eventually it was it was exactly that. And then me too happened. And the doctor for trials happened that really made me angry watching the aftermath of bad watching how men and Trump were sort of belittling her. And I was like, Well, I can get on my social media and be grumpy and then snarky and things like that. Or I can just make firecracker department, the best thing ever and change the world that way. So the podcast became a community now we have a community of I would say, like 3000, firecrackers internationally, and we have workshops and mentorship panels, and we've just started creating more content. And that has, I feel has shifted things in a way that I'm really proud of like I feel like because of the projects and different programs that we have, people are now able to call themselves writers that maybe they weren't calling themselves writers three years ago so that kind of thing and then the Blaze Award. The Blaze session started after that as a low mini series but yeah, firecracker department is stepping into more content creation now too so I'm excited about that.

Wendy Mesley  19:55  
Why Firecracker? Why did you pick that?

Naomi Snieckus  19:58  
Women Of Ill Repute like that's a great big name. That's fantastic. But like how long did it take you to find that name?

Maureen Holloway  20:04  
Wendy came up with the name first.

Wendy Mesley  20:06  
Well, it was my husband's idea. Yeah, he kind of knows me. We line up at 4am.

But Firecracker just sort of came to you?

Naomi Snieckus  20:18  
Well, I've always I love the term firecracker. You know, it sort of has that 1960s edge of like she's a real firecracker. I love that. And I love the department because it makes it a little bit cheeky about being, you know, this organization. I also love that it's not gender specific, so that we are women and non binary artists working together that is important to me. So it took me forever, I had a list of like, 100 I gave it out to way too many people for way too much advice, which I think is a not a good choice. You get like all these people going I like this, but I don't like that another person going well, I like that. But I don't like this. And then finally, it was New Year's Eve, my friend, Naomi Wright, who was visiting us in Los Angeles. Nobody could sleep. We decided we were not going to stay up till midnight. We were not interested in that. And then at midnight, the fireworks started going off and it woke me up. And I was like oh fireworks, it's gonna be the Firecracker department.

Maureen Holloway  21:11  
There you go. Yeah, we kind of painted herself into a corner with women of ill repute as a name because even though we really liked it, we were about, you know, six months into the podcast, we realized we wanted to talk to people who weren't necessarily women, or man or anything. We just felt that we were constructed by by the gender. So we've just started, we just said, okay, well, we're the women of ill repute. You can be whatever you want. And then we brought men on.

Naomi Snieckus  21:38  
You get three minutes into one of your chats. You're like, oh, it's those, yeah, it's pretty clear.

Wendy Mesley  21:43  
Well, and it's fun being being a woman of ill repute. I mean, I think every single woman that we've met, and many of the men say, yeah, well, I'm a women of ill repute. 

Maureen Holloway  21:53  
I think everybody is like, they feel like they have sort of challenged the system in some way. And that's all that we're saying. It's it's, and we only talk to people that we like, so it's no who we've never found. We've never heard from anybody that we've talked to is Yes, I have done everything I'm supposed to do. I have followed all the rules, and it has played paid off very well for me. Thank you very much. That's we've never encountered that. Shall we do that these pop questions with Naomi? I think it would be a great idea. ,

Wendy Mesley  22:21  
Yeah it's kind of a new idea. Well, I mean, we've sort of been playing with the sort of the Proust questionnaire, there's a million versions of those around. Why not was Naomi, I think we should just do it.

Maureen Holloway  22:31  
Because you're because you're, you're quick on your feet and so on. This isn't a quiz. This is actually you know, about pop culture, mostly. But so for example, what's I'm assuming you're a reader. I don't know anybody that I like, who isn't? You might just have met. I read the best books that you've recently read. It doesn't have to be fiction.

Naomi Snieckus  22:54  
Do you know, I think I don't often do this and I'm not a strong reader. I am not somebody that reads I thought I liked reading. I liked the idea. When I go on holiday. I'm like, I read ferociously. But then when I'm we're I don't know, my brains do scattered but I reread Fall On Your Knees.

Maureen Holloway  23:11  
Oh I just listened to it again. Yeah.

Naomi Snieckus  23:14  
Yeah I just love. And we saw the show that was at Canadian stage and Anne-Marie McDonald and I was so moved. I just think that's one of the most interesting. Like, I just think her brain is so interesting, the way she wove that story, so I love reading it again. 

Wendy Mesley  23:28  
Good answer, Naomi. She was on the podcast, we interviewed her after we, yeah, after we did, or just after she was publishing feign. And we read that and it's 800 pages, and I was thinking, oh, 800 pages. Anyway, it was wonderful, but she was she was fascinating. And it was only afterwards that I realized that she had been through this horrible illness and had basically been bedridden. And we didn't even talk about that. I didn't know about it. We did some research. But yeah, so what else I'm sort of interested in well, I'm everyone's interested in you know, what's on TV. What are you screening, but is there like, what do you do to waste time? Like, is it your phone, is that Netflix?

Naomi Snieckus  24:09  
I'm very good at it. I know people are like, Oh, you're always so busy. Oh, man. Like no, I waste a lot of time. I don't know. I like projects. I don't think that's wasting time. I think like My way is like getting off the computer. So things like you know, we've just torn apart our cottage so that's gonna take some good chunk of time. In producing I think producing is sort of my time wasted. That doesn't sound that, I know that sounds like what are your I'm too helpful. I do think that's right. People don't like him optimistic. But I do think like that wastes my time when I'm trying to organize things, or I do have this little I mean, I'm a little obsessed with it. I have a little you know, those. Those little libraries that they have on the sidewalk of people's homes? 

Maureen Holloway  24:57  
Yeah, they're adorable. 

Naomi Snieckus  24:59  
I know. I started Well, our art gallery. So like our neighbors in our community put like little art pieces in it and I'm a little obsessed about that. 

Maureen Holloway  25:07  
And nobody steals them.

Naomi Snieckus  25:08  
Yeah, they're supposed to it's they're free.

Wendy Mesley  25:13  
They're like it's free. You said it was a free art I care with that.

Naomi Snieckus  25:16  
I bake art and then neighbors take over and do some like little exhibits. And I just love it. 

Maureen Holloway  25:21  
That is so cool. Yeah, we have those in my neighborhood. Both the libraries. And I just noticed the other day walking the dog. There was a little art get like a little thing with a glass door and there were little tiny. I didn't realize you could take any of this stuff. Are you sure?

Naomi Snieckus  25:35  
I'm pretty sure. It's yeah, they should say like free art gallery leave or?

Maureen Holloway  25:40  
No? Did I say that? Maybe? I think it was just the person who lived there was showing off their stuff and they would cheat.

Naomi Snieckus  25:45  
Well, then they should have lock.

Maureen Holloway  25:50  
Down the street. All right. Okay, favorite blockbuster movie. 

Naomi Snieckus  25:55  
Oh, do you know what I loved? Loved? Loved is everything all at once? All the time? Am I saying that time oh my gosh, what that movie changed my brain. Like I watched that going, they're there, the only rules that people set in moviemaking in creation of art is my rules that you've put on yourself. Because that like threw away all the rules. Every time you were like, oh, this is what the movie is about? No, it's about this. But it's still had like a beautiful heart and love. 

Maureen Holloway  26:22  
It had a beautiful heart. And it was also hilariously funny. Yeah, and movie changed did win this win win Best Picture, did it not? So I think a lot of people were like, I don't know what I just saw. I don't know what that was. But it never it never failed to hold your attention for the whole whole time.

Wendy Mesley  26:39  
But it is. I mean, if this sort of goes back to the question of like, does humor change as you get older is humor different than it used to be? Because now there are there are so many satirical movies like that one would never have won all the prizes that had won this time. And, and a friend of mine just well, a couple of years ago, she wrote the book on BlackBerry, and now it's been made into a movie, which is sort of like Facebook. It's not like her book, which is journalism, you know, full of No buts. But it's very yes and and it's very, it's very funny, and it's very satirical and it's very ironical, ironical ironic, full of iron. So maybe things are changing. I mean, maybe we're getting looser, or maybe we just appreciate it when we see it.

Naomi Snieckus  27:21  
Yeah, I mean, look like something like, you know, those aeroplane movies are like Dumb and Dumber, like, there was a time where like, it was a pretty collegiate human culture, just to say the word. But I still think people love like, that sense of humor isn't necessarily my sense of humor, but there's still people that watch that and are like, floored by that kind of, and I feel like I'm looking at two of them right now. Like, I do feel like it's still available. I just think like, we're shifting right. There's still like, what there was a there was a show is Gilligan's Island. 

Wendy Mesley  27:54  
Airplane. Yes. No Gilligan. No. 

Naomi Snieckus  27:56  
But they showed they had to disclaimer before they said Gilligan's Island was made and what the 1970s I think 60s 60s yeah, at a time where the humor was different. We're not gonna take this off the circulation. But we do want to recognize that things have changed because there's very inappropriate jokes that are in that show, like very misogynist racist, like, but But what do you not do not learn from that? We still need to see it to see where we've come from.

Maureen Holloway  28:23  
Do you think Gilligan's Island was funny? I mean, even when you were a kid when he watched-

Naomi Snieckus  28:27  
No, I did not. I just thought he I liked the relationship between Gilligan and Skipper. I thought that was a funny, but it didn't. 

Maureen Holloway  28:35  
It's very classic. You know, the big guy believe a little guy, you know?

Wendy Mesley  28:39  
Yeah, it's sort of like status jokes and things like that. But yeah, well, we-

Both love Lucille Ball. Yeah, that has to be yeah, a woman of ill repute. She was the worst. She's she's, she said, but yeah. oh, no, we were so we're gonna wrap up in a couple of minutes. But oh my god, we're out of time. Maybe Maureen wants it. Well, yeah, look at it.

Naomi Snieckus  28:43  
Wow.

Wendy Mesley  28:43  
Listen can we we just listened for one geez.

Maureen Holloway  28:47  
word Listen to me, would you? This has been such a pleasure. Thank you so much for doing this. The second time I trust the sound quality will be as good as it sounds in our heads and whatever you're doing to me, please let us know. And we'll have you want to promote it or we'll just promote it without you. Because you're a lot of fun and terrifically talented. So thank you for doing this. Well,

Naomi Snieckus  29:31  
I mean, if this doesn't record, I'm up for doing it a third time just saying oh, you're here to here.

Maureen Holloway  29:37  
Every Tuesday. Yeah, see you next Tuesday. Nice.

Wendy Mesley  29:44  
I know what that's not poopoo.

Naomi Snieckus  29:49  
 So badly Wendy. 

Maureen Holloway  29:51  
I know she did. She was saving it. She's saving it. Alright.

Naomi Snieckus  29:55  
Thanks so much. Thanks for supporting all that you do and for supporting the firecracker and the blaze session. That's everything. I really appreciate it. Our pleasure. Bye you two.

Maureen Holloway  30:07  
sS yeah, this is a little behind the scenes glimpse into the behind the scenes when we started this for some reason I got made the technical person I don't know why,

Wendy Mesley  30:17  
Because you're the whiz.

Maureen Holloway  30:20  
In my in my almost 40 year career in radio I was never allowed to touch the equipment because we had producers to do that and I didn't want to learn because once I learned I would be held responsible.

Wendy Mesley  30:32  
Well that's my excuse to television that I had people now I don't have any people but I have you and you know, like to things more than I do, but I know too. So yeah, and all of this to say we screwed up on the last one or maybe Naomi Snieckus screwed up

Maureen Holloway  30:48  
No but whoever blamed aghast or will never broadcast again. So you know, I am the operator on this kind of thing. I'm also the accountant I don't know.

Wendy Mesley  30:58  
Yeah, you're good was figures apparently too? Yeah. No, you're you're a whiz.

Maureen Holloway  31:02  
And when I say accountant, I say that very dryly because our income is not quite what it could be compared to our output but so if you do want to advertise just go to our website and at womenofill repute.com and and everything will be there for you to to figure out how to support us. Naomi was fantastic.

Wendy Mesley  31:21  
Yeah all of this to say we we we had Naomi on in may well a couple months ago like many many months ago and it didn't work usually we can our technical producer Matt can fix things up but not this time. So we anyway now we're going to talk every Tuesday I think yeah. Anyway she was lovely as we say

Maureen Holloway  31:44  
She's she's terrific talent. Yeah, yeah.

Wendy Mesley  31:47  
So yeah, I'm gonna have to check out the comedians that she mentioned and yeah, she wants to change the world and laugh at the same time which I think is a very admirable and she said poopoo.

Maureen Holloway  31:58  
Okay, stop it I, I'm out. Goodbye.

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  32:00  
Women Of Ill Repute was written and produced by Maureen Holloway and Wendy Mesley. With the help from the team at the Sound Off Media Company, and producer Jet Belgraver.