Last night, a huge celebrity appeared on Late Night With Seth Meyers, and also, Elizabeth Banks was a guest. To paraphrase a movie starring Vulture writer and podcaster Jesse David Fox’s favorite thespian, that’s our boy!
Jesse went on to promote his book, Comedy Book, closing a cosmic loop, as at last the Vulture comedy-writer-abouter became the Vulture comedy-written-about. The highlight is when he went off on comedy that labels itself “brave†for being reactionary: “Often, ‘fearless’ is used for comedians who like to go onstage and make fun of this group or that group, as if that’s a scary thing to do. More realistically, that’s what a scared person does.†(Bars.) He continued, “It’s much more fearful to go onstage and talk about the things you’re scared of,†referencing Maria Bamford’s openness about mental illness and Tig Notaro’s famous set about cancer. “Unlike, say, being revealed to be a pervert or sex criminal, you actually can lose work for being diagnosed with a mental illness. People do hold that against you. So to go onstage and embrace it is a gift to the audience. I wanted to celebrate that.â€
Also covered were Jesse’s thoughts on complaints that audiences are too sensitive (“What they really mean is ‘I am old and I don’t like it’â€) and the scourge of crowdwork clips: “If you’re going, My name is Jim, I’m an accountant, I’m waiting for my time to say those two things, then you’re not allowing yourself to become part of an audience. And that is a bummer.â€
Basically, the clip is a reminder that Vulture staffers make great late-night guests. We’re also available for weddings and bar mitzvahs.