#257 - The Fusion of Humor and Heart, from the comedy specials of Akaash Singh and Fahim Anwar to the award-winning film CODA

Spun Today with Tony Ortiz

Welcome back to the Spun Today podcast where we weave creativity into the everyday fabric of our lives.

In this episode for you comedy aficionados we'll dissect the success of stand-up specials like Akaash Singh's "Gaslit" and Fahim Anwar's "House Money," examining the innovative ways these comics are delivering their content directly to fans, bypassing the traditional platforms.

Then we're getting cinematic as we discuss the Oscar-winning film "Coda," exploring how the movie's heartwarming family dynamics, a passionate protagonist, and its small-town nostalgia may stir the storyteller within you.

So whether you're into the art of storytelling, looking for some inspiration, or just need a good laugh, tune in as we unravel these threads on episode 257.

The Spun Today Podcast is a Podcast that is anchored in Writing, but unlimited in scope. Give it a whirl.

Time Stamps

00:00 - Start

05:33 - Akash discusses polarized and extreme political ideologies.

08:56 - Tony explores how Comics innovate by offering free YouTube specials.

12:32 - Tony suggests adding one promo ad before, during, after the special.

15:26 - Fahim Anwar's decides to leave behind an engineering career, for stand up comedy.

16:50 - Fahim speaks about being in relationships.

20:14 - The first Deaf actor wins Oscar for best supporting role. 22:15 - Josh Dubin is the Executive director of Perlmutter center for Legal justice.

25:16 - The protagonist of CODA is the only hearing member, translator in her family.

31:33 - In CODA the family starts successful business, but Ruby wants out.

34:33 - In CODA the family supports daughter's singing dream at audition.

38:39 - Promo for the Fire Breathing Kittens podcast.

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Links referenced in this episode:

Akaash Singh - GASLIT (2024) Full Special https://youtu.be/p_HqJyq2SYU?si=KHL_RFId_Z7SDqmk

Fahim Anwar: House Money Extended Version FULL SPECIAL: https://youtu.be/lbQczAcZb_0?si=e2Fumi9e_-X3YPtI

CODA https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10366460/fullcredits

JRE episode with Josh Dubin & Sheldon Johnson: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3nsOv2Bl6OVvTcjUrJ1GUa?si=okU9cvVFSvKFcldj6Jv06A

Article about the murder charge: https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/08/sheldon-johnson-arrested-torso-new-york

FireBreathingKittens Podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/firebreathing-kittens/id1459051634

https://www.youtube.com/@firebreathingkittenspodcas3139

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[00:00:00] What's up folks what's going on and welcome to the spun today podcast the only podcast that is anchored in writing but unlimited in scope I'm your host Tony Ortiz and I appreciate you listening this is episode at 257 of the sponsor a podcast and in this episode I speak about a couple of hilarious stand up comedy specials that I watched recently the first one being Akash sings Gaslit

and the second one being Fahim Anwar's House Money.

And I also speak about watching a little late to the game here, but watching the

Oscar winning film in 2018, I believe,

sorry, that's 2021, the Oscar winning film Coda.

Stick around for all that good stuff. But first I wanted to tell you all about a way that you can help support this show.

Your support absolutely means a ton

and is definitely fuel for the fire that motivates me to continue to put out

These episodes as well as [00:01:00] my writing content

So if you can't support the spun today podcast, it is greatly appreciated Here is one way you can do just that and then we'll jump right into the episode

comedian Akash Singh released his 2024 stand up comedy special gas lit two weeks ago as of the recording of this episode And it is already up to 1. 5 million views on YouTube. Absolutely. Round of applause. Amazing feedback on that comedy special Akash Singh. For those of you who don't know is a standup comic, obviously, but he's also one half of,

or I actually shouldn't even say one half. He's a co host of the flagrant podcast alongside Andrew Schultz,

Mark Gagnon, and Alex media.

flagrant is a dope podcast. If you guys aren't familiar with it,

definitely check it out. It's probably one of my [00:02:00] favorite podcasts. Not probably. It is one of my favorite podcasts. I would say probably second, maybe behind Rogan's, but

I definitely appreciate all the laughs from it, as well as the different perspectives of

Schultz, Akash,

Mark, and Alex. And the rest of the crew over there on a flagrant.

They all have their unique personality

reflected within the questions that they ask guests, for example,

while maintaining an awesome chemistry amongst all of them.

And that is definitely dope to see. But yeah, Akash put out this latest comedy special on YouTube. I'll link to it in the episode notes for you guys to check it out. It's absolutely hilarious. He opened it up for, with a traditional Indian dance,

which was cool. That was, that was definitely fun to watch.

And cool to see, you know, whenever anybody's, you know, big enough, their, their culture, where they're from, their roots.

And the special was just really funny,

really good writing, precise writing,

had some really good misdirects that makes you anticipate the punchline that much more. [00:03:00] Akash has a way of being really animated

in my opinion, and maybe animated is not the right, the right term, but I can't think of a better one right now.

But he's very , , cause you know, animated makes me think of more like Jim Carrey and physical humor, type of thing. And it's not that, but he's more spunky, lively.

And I liked that about his comedy and that definitely shows within this set as well.

He's recently ish married, I think a couple of years ago maybe.

And if I'm not mistaken, he's in his thirties, mid to late thirties, I would say. So definitely within my generation or close to it, I'm 39, so I can definitely appreciate the,

a lot of the content that he speaks of within his special related to marriage,

starting to pay more attention to politics and culture as we do as we grow older

and start becoming washed. Now, let me stop.

I can definitely appreciate his more [00:04:00] centered type of view is more objective view on both sides. When it comes to politically, he was born and raised in Texas, grew up comedy wise in New York, and I believe still lives in New York.

So his POV is definitely framed. I would imagine by those two experiences. And he has a large chunk in this special of liberals versus conservatives, which was definitely fun to watch. Like a cosign on

a lot of it, if not all of it, in terms of him highlighting how I felt and feel about a lot of those topics.

And he was essentially saying, and literally said, that us normal people, which is most of us in the middle, are just being gaslit

by the fringes of both political parties. So we're being gaslit, meaning, you know, felt, psychologically felt, you know, made to feel crazy. essentially by the both extremes of each party of the Democratic party on the left [00:05:00] and the Republican party on the right.

And it's from, for most of us in the middle, from a gut instinctual type of feeling, we look out to both of those sides. Like nah, you motherfuckers are the ones that are crazy. Not us. Like some shit just say isn't normal. It

has a hilarious joke about Some people in Texas believe that they can catch gay, catch a gay as if it were like catching a cold or something like that. And he acts out this part of the bit where he's just groping his stomach and he's like, Oh shit, I feel terrible. Fuck. I got to sit down. I, fuck, I must've sat next to a homosexual in the subway or something,

which again is meant to highlight that

fringe, ultra conservative. thought process of some folks on the right. And then while, while staying on that gay theme, flipping it back to liberals on the left, who have, in my opinion, an equally crazy thought in [00:06:00] saying and thinking things like this piece of the bit where he says, liberals in New York just be like, Oh, you think cause a dude fucks another dude that means he's gay.

It's like, yeah, motherfucker. That is the definition of gay. But he highlights these two,

polar opposite, but equally crazy situations. And I appreciate shit like that. I appreciate honest comedy like that.

He also had a bit about genders and saying how he looked it up at some point in time, I think pre pandemic. And there were 30 something genders. And then he looked it up two years later, post pandemic, and there were 72 genders, and as of, you know, the most recent count, there's 118 genders, and he goes off on this whole rant of saying that

Essentially 72 or 118 or whatever of anything is too much.

We should just pick a number and stick to it. It's not to, you know, he agrees, you know, you know, gender dysphoria and [00:07:00] different, you know, folks from different,

from different paths in life or just wired differently that all exists. Okay. Agreed.

He can concede that, but 118. Come on. And then when some of the crowd, , Ooh, they're not or whatever, he was like, all right, anyone who's offended, just name nine.

He spoke a lot about family and being married

and as comics do just men in general, even in just, just like ragging their wives a bit. And he was saying how dad jokes, like the term dad joke, which are just corny jokes exist. Because moms ruin the dads and take away, , them being funny, just with, , all the judgment and criticism

constantly thrown their way.

And he highlighted an important point, I thought, that all men really want in life is a vacation. And by vacation, what they mean is for the wife to go on a trip and give them some solitude. Hehehehe The last thing [00:08:00] I'll

say is that the guys over at Flagrant are definitely innovators of just this whole comedy medium space,

Namely with Andrew Schultz being the first one or one of the first ones to really break the mold of comedians only chasing the large streaming platforms

and platforms in general, like HBO's, Netflix. Comedy Central, Amazon, et cetera, to put out their specials. He was the one that really broke the mold and figured out how to

put content out more for free in, in not just like the podcast, but actual standup comedy in the form of clips and on YouTube clips on social media to drive ticket sales, which is the bread and butter for most comedians, if not all. Well, most,

and they definitely continue to innovate within that space in, [00:09:00] you know, putting out comedy specials on YouTube for free, monetizing through there

to the point where many, many, many other comics, including Akash, for example, have followed suit with putting their specials out through YouTube and famously. And by famously, I mean here within the spun to the universe, as I,

as I speak to the half a dozen of you listening to this.

I inducted Andrew Schultz into the Spun Today Goats Doing Goat Shit list many episodes ago related to the last special that he put out where he wound up getting a deal with one of these platforms and then wound up putting up his own money to buy it back from them so that he can put it out himself.

And I forget the platform it was that he used, but definitely look up the goats doing goat shit. Playlist of mine on YouTube and look search for the Andrew Schultz one. And he essentially put the special out on pay per view form [00:10:00] on demand for a couple of weeks, made his money back threefold, I believe it was, as he broke down on the pot one day.

And then after the fact was able, you know, since he retained those rights, able to put it out. On YouTube again for free and able to monetize that way

and had so much of a, an impact on the following that the next time around for his next special,

I imagine all the large streamers are going to come back around, but with a much larger bag this time around and make it make sense for

him to go on a Netflix or Amazon, et cetera. And I say all that to say that. This is the ecosystem that Akash is coming from, right? And a, an inch intricate part of,

and they continue to innovate and something very innovative that I saw for the first time that I saw here in Akash is special was that

the special had a podcast style [00:11:00] promo. It was presented by price picks, which is one of the sponsors of flagrant and other podcasts. Okay.

but it's the first time that I've seen it

seen a sponsored ad within a comedy special, which was very interesting to see.

And again, innovative and I'm sure other podcasts or other comedians that put out their content themselves will follow suit. There are already when you put out your special on YouTube, the way that you monetize it, they're all ads. There are ads sprinkled throughout,

but having a presented by. And an ad read essentially by the comedian himself is a whole another layer of monetization that they figured out

and that Akash did with this special.

And they were good in my set, in my opinion, in that by the time you realize it the first time that that's what it is, it's halfway through.

So at first you're kind of , is this another bit? What's going on? Cause he's kind of still on stage, but you could tell something's [00:12:00] different. And he speaks about prize picks. They're , Oh shit, this is a promo ad. So it kind of takes you out of the comedy special a bit, but then it goes right back into it.

Cause it's not a long, two minute promo. And he also made it funny. In that he had his mom in one of one of the drops and had his wife, I believe in one of the others.

I do remember thinking though that it does, I think one is good. Obviously, you know, whoever's, you know, presenting and sponsoring are, they're going to want two or three or maybe even more for an hour long special. But I think more than one takes you more so out of the special, maybe in the beginning before it starts, maybe one mid roll and one at the end type of thing.

So that, yeah. Aside from the interruptions that are already coming from the YouTube ads, adding this one more within the confines of the special itself makes more sense just in [00:13:00] terms of retention and stuff like that, I think. But again, that's just, that's just my opinion. Regardless of that, it was done tastefully.

And more importantly, from a business standpoint, such a dope layer that they figured out.

Of monetization to add to standup comedy specials that comedians put out themselves on YouTube.

So hat off to Akash and team for figuring that out

and again for putting out such a cool special Akash sings Gaslit. Available now on YouTube. A link to indie episode notes for folks to check out

Faheem Anwar's House Money Standup comedy special.

Fahim Anwar is a very funny comic. I first learned about Fahim

through, I believe, Brian Redban. I always remember him referencing Fahim Anwar, mentioning him in passing. I just don't remember if it was the old Death Squad podcast or just like early [00:14:00] episodes of Rogan.

But either way, I've always enjoyed him and his personality when I've heard him on Rogan, which he's been on a bunch of times.

And other pods as well. Like you might be drunk,

I'm sure Ari's podcast, the old podcast, skeptic tank he has since, by the way, for fellow Ari Shafir fans out there finally put out the, or started putting out the UB tripping episodes, his new pod, which is interestingly under the YMH studios umbrella, which is Tom Segura and

Christina P's

company under the. Serious slash stitcher deal that they did over there,

which were also by the way, featured in the goats doing goat shit segments of the spun today pod. Again, check that playlist out on YouTube if you're interested.

But yeah, I've always enjoyed Fahim's take on things. He was funny,

interesting dude. That was an engineer for Boeing by trade and

decided to leave that behind

that stable, well paying.

[00:15:00] Any parents from any walk of life would be proud of career behind and

decided to be a stand up comic instead,

which incidentally worked out for

fans of Fahim such as myself, because we got to enjoy his content, but could have really went left. Yeah, I checked out his older special, which is also available for free on YouTube, as is this one. His older special is called Hattrick, which he filmed at. The Comedy Store. The world famous Comedy Store.

Where, if I remember correctly, it's called Hat Trick because he

edited together sets that he performed in all three of the Comedy Store rooms. The Belly Room, the O. R., and I forget what the other one is. The O. R. is the original room, the Belly Room.

Whatever. And there's another room at the Comedy Store. And he filmed in all three rooms, edited it together and made that his hat trick special. Three rooms, hence the term hat trick. And then this [00:16:00] special, which is his latest,

he put out two different versions of a tighter full version and then an extended cut version

about two to three weeks ago, two weeks ago on one, three weeks ago on the other, and. It already has a close to 150, 000 views shout out to Fahim Anwar and his house money comedy special.

A couple of really funny bits that I wanted to highlight

was him speaking about relationships and he says that being in a relationship for most folks is the reason to be in the relationship or a reason to be in a relationship

is so that you have someone to tell things to. That are not interesting enough to tell anyone else and slightly more interesting Than to keep it to yourself I thought that was a pretty funny distinction there

also playing on [00:17:00] the whole relationship theme He says how as men We can't cry

and express our emotions When we feel we want to We can't come when we want to, until at least the woman does. And our whole lives are all about just suppressing liquids.

So that was pretty funny. He does a bit about

different TV high school drama shows. If I remember correctly, he does them separately. Has, you know, jokes for each within them. But then, like, cross pollinates.

The bit where he speaks about the Cobra Kai kids

and the euphoria kids. And how funny it would be if one of the Cobra Kai kids transferred to the euphoria high school, and he just walks into an party where they did doing drugs and having an orgy or some shit.

And one of the Cobra Kai kids is , Hey guys, what do you do? Karate around here?

By the way, a Cobra Kai fan I've done.

episodes and segments [00:18:00] of previous seasons of Cobra Kai. Euphoria, I've heard is dope, but I haven't seen it, but I know, you know, it's definitely a darker high school experience and drugs and

sex. And it's where Zendaya popped off from,

but that was just a funny concept. Oh, he does this hilarious bit, which I related to a bit about flying business class versus first class. And I've never flown first class, but I have flown business class a few times.

And I have actually spoken about it here on the pod in the past. If you guys want to check out the India episodes, I think there's three, at least three, maybe even four or five episodes where I broke down my trips and especially the first one where it was my first experience of flying business class at that point.

And I really broke down the nuances of like the differences between coach and. business class and just a cool shit that I experienced. So if you're interested, definitely check it out. But he's doing a similar thing within this bit for him and Juarez and based [00:19:00] comparing business class, the first class.

And when you find business class, you're like, you know, you, you go in even from the airport experience, you go in and in a different line, it's usually emptier. You go straight through

security is super seamless. The plane you could lay down in and you get these more gourmet ish type foods and all the snacks you want and liquor and drinks and

in the bit he's describing that experience and then saying, how could first class be better than this? , what, what could be better than this? But, you know, it's such a big jump from coach to business. And

in the bit, in the bit he says how he. opens the curtain from business class to first class just to peek in to see what the difference is and he said everyone's just like naked and fucking with fox masks on

and then he goes back to his business class seat and continues eating his snacks and i just thought that was hilarious but it was a dope special i definitely recommend folks checking it out it is [00:20:00] available on youtube i will link to it in the episode notes And it is once again, Fahim Anwar's House Money.

Check it out.

CODA is the Academy Award winning film of 2021.

Actually, let me correct that. It came out in 2021, but it won the award for the Academy Award, AKA Oscar for best motion picture of the year in 2022. Best performance by an actor in a supporting role.

to Troy Katsur, who became the first deaf actor to win an Oscar, and also best adapted screenplay by writer Sian Heder.

I hadn't watched the film until now, or until recently rather, but it was definitely a dope watch. Spoiler alert if you haven't seen it.

Here is the official synopsis. As a CODA, which is the acronym for Child of Deaf Adult,

Ruby is the only hearing person in her family. When [00:21:00] the family's fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her passion of going to Berklee College of Music and her fear of abandoning her parents.

And as we like to do here on the Spun Today podcast, because if we don't do it, who will? And like to shout out the writers, the writers of CODA were Sian Heder, I'm not sure if that's pronounced it. Sian Heder. Apologies, which was also the director also Victoria Bedos.

And I'm definitely going to butcher this other one, which is Stanislas Carré de Malberg shout out to each and every one of the writers that put this film together.

And a very quick aside. Okay. I probably want to circle back to the story in a later episode, but speaking of Coda, which made me think of this,

Rogan had on his podcast in [00:22:00] early February episode, 2096, he had Josh Dubin on who has been on the podcast several times. Dope, dope, dope to listen to, to Josh Dubin and all he does. Working with the Innocence Project. He's the executive director of the Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice. He works within this realm of criminal justice reform and helps get out wrongfully convicted or excessively convicted folks from prison.

He's an attorney that's dedicated his time to that.

And not all the times, but often when he goes on Rogan, he goes on with a specific guest that has been recently released to tell their story. And share their insights about prison and the criminal justice system and just shed light on this whole taboo usually topic.

And the only reason why I'm mentioning this now is because he recently had or brought on a guest that also was a CODA, a child of [00:23:00] death adults by the name of Sheldon Johnson.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks after the episode aired, My brother sends me an article where one Sheldon Johnson recently released from prison, not from, and they started the episode at the outset saying that he was definitely guilty for what he did which was assault,

but they were able to commute his time because it was an excessive

sentencing, if I remember correctly,

which in this case, time showed that it definitely wasn't excessive for in this particular case, but. I'll circle back to that at a later date, but this dude, Sheldon Johnson comes out

in this article with surveillance footage showing him coming in and out of an apartment with, or where he lived, I guess, with a wig on and different clothing and different disguises almost. He had a blonde wig on. This is a, you know, tall, skinny black dude with a bright yellow blonde wig.[00:24:00]

In one surveillance photo, then different clothing in another surveillance photo, all within the span of like the same day and carrying different things. And it turns out this motherfucker had a torso, which he had been amputating in his apartment. And taking out body parts piece by piece. How fucking sick is that?

Sorry, the whole CODA thing made me. Okay. Remember that but I definitely want to put a pin in that circle back to that story at a later date if you guys haven't Heard of it Till this point definitely check it out the episode. You can listen to the Rogan episode 2096 with Josh Dubin and Sheldon Johnson for reference and if I remember I'll link to the episode to the article Well, this is broken down In this episode, and if not in a future episode, when I break this down fully, cause I also want to circle back with the Rogan feedback after the, this news came out, et cetera.

But now let's [00:25:00] shift gears back to the movie Coda.

It was a beautiful story, very well written, very well

told. It's full of a lot of heart, family at the center of it, sacrifice at the center of it.

And it's this family that has, it's a family of four. You have the two parents, which are deaf, the oldest son, which is also deaf. And then the youngest daughter, which is not deaf.

She's the only one that can hear and, and, and speak.

And she's a senior in high school. So, you know, older teenager, but having this responsibility of, which has an immigrant kid I'm sure myself and I'm sure other folks can identify with being the, , translator for your family or for your, or your parents or older relatives or other relatives that don't speak English.

Imagine that reality, but like on steroids because you're literally the interpreter, not just from language to language, but

the interpreter of sound, if you [00:26:00] will. Like you're translating everything and anything. for your parents, for your brother, from doctor's visits to school, to parent teacher conferences,

all from English to sign language, which has to add just a whole other layer of complexity to it.

And it makes you realize it definitely made me realize in the movie, when they masterfully cut from just , you know, we're seeing and hearing what's going on in the movie, but at times it switches POV. To no sound so you can see how the character the other characters the three main characters of The father Frank Rossi played by Troy Katsura

The son Leo Rossi played by Daniel Durant The mother Jackie Rossi played by Marlee Maitland how they feel and take in the space around them with silence

It definitely made me appreciate of how much we take just our five senses for granted.

But in this story, the main [00:27:00] character Ruby Rossi played by Amelia Jones is

balancing that responsibility with just being a teenager and sometimes wanting to, you know, fuck off and go do something with your friends and dealing with bullies in school and pursuing her passions, which she stumbled upon singing

And joining the school chorus.

And in that chorus class, her

professor, her teacher

is better now, better not though. Via logos played by Eugenio Derbez. And he does an amazing job in the, in this film. He's an accomplished musician. He went to that Berkeley college of music that she wants to go to.

And he's really her, he plays the mentor role. In the film.

And that's from a story structure perspective,

he's funny and inspiring and really pushes her to chase that passion, chase that dream of being a singer and getting into that school.

And he tells her this dope line in the [00:28:00] film that supposedly David Bowie said about Bob Dylan. He said that Bob Dylan's voice is like sand and glue at the same time. And that there's a lot of people with pretty voices, but they don't have anything to say

Versus Bob Dylan's for example, which is like a raspy sand deer sounding voice, but has so much to say

And then he goes on in the movie to start start calling her bob instead of by her name

And then ultimately tells her that

her voice is not like sand That it is pretty but that it's also more like glue

And she emotes having something to say, having a story to tell, which is obviously informed from her upbringing and being a CODA. The music in the film was really cool, especially all the choir practice moments. A lot of classics, really cool to listen to

the cinematography throughout the movie was beautiful. It was really well shot and some parts of it, [00:29:00] wherever they filmed from reminded me of the Hudson Valley here in New York, where I've done a couple of bike marathons, which the season's about to kick off again. It's about that time. But just aesthetically, visually it looked similar, reminded me to, to that town.

Cause as a lot, a lot of like scenic areas, But anyway, so Ruby and her family, Ruby, you know, from the perspective of Ruby, she's dealing with all of this. And the life is the day to day is essentially that the family has a fishing boat. They, the way they make money is, you know, they go out fishing every single day, wake up at three or four in the morning or something like that.

Go out, fish, come back to the docks, sell the fish to the distributors that are there who are

negotiating and low balling all the fishermen. And then they buy the fish from them and then, you know, sell and distribute

from there on. And that's how the family makes its living. And it's all of them. It's The father, the father, the [00:30:00] brother, and Coda.

And then from there, she , rides her bike, goes to school, and, you know, falls asleep in school often. Kids tease her saying that she smells fish.

She's dealing with the dynamics of, you know, again, in every situation, having to be the one to

look after her family, her father, her older brother. that can't hear. You know, legally having someone on the boat that can hear for when the coast guard reaches out or

for any updates on weather and stuff like that. It's essential slash mandatory and also negotiating for the father and brother for the fish that they all call it. And hearing and listening around to the other, other fishermen that are selling their fish, for example, for a higher price. And then they try to low ball the deaf crew cause they can't hear.

And then her having to stick up for them and just dealing with all this type of shit, right? All this extra stuff because of the fact that she's a quota.

And that's the day to day [00:31:00] dynamic.

And then the older brother kind of feels like, you know, it's my job to be, you know, to be this for our family. You're not supposed to do is, you know, go to school. You like singing, pursue the singing shit, leave this to me, you know, and he feels kind of like being babied along. Cause you know, his kid sister has to look out for them in these kinds of ways.

And then she, they get into an argument and she's telling him, she's like, yeah, but how are you going to, how are you going to deal with the selling and the other people and stuff like that. And the brother makes a salient point. He's, he's like, let them figure out how the fuck to deal with deaf people, not us figure out how to deal with them.

And ultimately they decide to, as a family, start their own distribution because they're being undercut so much by the folks purchasing their fish and business starts picking up, they're doing really, really well. But then at that point she wants to exit and, you know, the brother's coming into his own.

The father, the mother is helping with the, with the business now. And she wants the exam and really pursue the singing thing. But the family's like, how the [00:32:00] fuck, you know, can you do that now? Especially at this time when we're literally just pivoting, put all of our eggs in this one basket of starting this business.

And it's actually doing well. , why would you want to leave? And, you know, the fact that they also need someone there that, that can literally hear.

And then on the flip side, she's being pushed by her mentor. She's the course teacher to, to definitely pursue this. Ultimately, she decides not to and she has this talent show at school that the family goes to where she sings and stuff like that. But she kind of in her head, she has resigned to the fact that this is going to be her last hurrah in terms of singing and putting on this, this, this show for all the families that came to watch the You know, the senior class course,

and this was one of those scenes that were

really great in that, you know, she was able to sing and perform, but just from a storytelling perspective, how they did that POV shift and, you know, the, the, the parents are there and they can see all the people around, you know, clapping and giving standing ovations and stuff like that, but they can't hear anything [00:33:00] then us as the audience watching the film.

This town goes silent and we see them on stage dancing and smiling and singing, but we don't hear anything and shows just from their perspective, the family perspective,

how they're taking in this experience. And

Ruby sings this song that she's been practicing with her love interest throughout the film leading up to this moment, which is you're all I need to get by.

Shout out to the Method Man and Mary J. Blige version, though.

And, you know, she sings it. Everything goes great. And the song throughout has this, has one meaning,

you know, in the whole, you know, love interest application event, if you will. And then when she gets home, the dad stays outside in the yard. He's looking up at the stars and he, he, she stays. And he asks her to sing the song for him and he puts

his hands by [00:34:00] her throat, by her vocal cord

and moments like this, like with dads and just like father, son stuff, or even father, daughter, daughter stuff, chokes me up almost instantly, even now, just rethinking about the moment. But it's such a touching moment between them. And he asks her to sing it for him. And he's feeling her voice as she sings it.

And in that moment, that's the same exact song, same exact lyrics takes on such a different meaning. And it's so applicable to their relationship, the father, daughter, and family dynamic relationship. That was such a dope creative choice. I thought in the telling of this story. Then from there, the father pretty much pushes her now to pursue her singing dream.

And there's this audition at the Berklee College of Music that they have to race to, to make the next day when the father makes this decision. And

they all go as a family and it's a [00:35:00] private audition. So the family can't go in, they can't see her perform. So they're standing outside. She's a little bit late. So the person, and you know, didn't bring sheet music or anything like that for the person that's there to play the piano for her to sing in front of the folks that ultimately decide if she makes it into the school or not.

So she's a little bit lost cause the song that she's been practicing for that audition. Now the person doesn't know the music and you know, she's kind of stuck, but

The mentor, the choir teacher walks in in that moment, being an alumni of the school and offers and asks if he can play for her, cause he knows the song, they all agree. And then she goes on to start, she starts off pretty flat. He pretends that he fucks up on the piano and apologizes and asks if he could restart just so she has a minute to compose herself.

And then around this time, the family, which is waiting in the hallway, sees a different entrance for the [00:36:00] balcony of the theater. And they sneak into it and go up just so they can watch her perform. You know, it's completely empty. There's three judges sitting in center orchestra and watching her on stage.

And then the mentor playing the piano, they sneak into the crowd. She sees them and lights up.

Begins to sing her ass off. And then in remembering that, obviously they can't hear her begins to sign the song as well,

which wasn't like the hoity toity, you know, proper way to audition. But in that moment, she was like, fuck it. I'm doing this for the fam. And this is me take it or leave it. And ultimately they wound up taking her because she had that unique

Story to tell.

But yeah, it was a really good, really dope movie. Really enjoyed it. I'm sure you folks have, if you've seen it already, and if not, definitely check it out. And one last thing that I saw a [00:37:00] meme of online, which really made me think, and I could just Google it to see if there's an answer out there, but I haven't.

So instead I'm going to

ask it and pose it to you folks just for some food for thought. Which is, what language do people that are deaf think in?

Interesting, right? If you're born, you've never heard anything. We form our thoughts around the language or languages that we speak. If you're born deaf, what do you think in?

But yeah, that aside, definitely

a film that is worth a watch.

And I highly recommend it. CODA, check it out.

And that folks was episode 257 of the spun today podcast. Thank you very much for rocking out with me. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Maybe even learned something, maybe took some morsels of entertainment from it.

I really, really appreciate each and every one of you that take the time to listen

before I let you go though. I wanted to tell you guys about a really cool podcast that you should [00:38:00] check out.

It's the Fire Breathing Kittens podcast. Fire Breathing Kittens is an actual play one shot podcast that plays various tabletop role playing games with a season long plot

because there's a beginning and an end to each week story. You can start at any episode. Every week has a different combination of four

from the same rotating cast group of people. Join Fire Breathing Kittens as they solve detective mysteries, attempt comedic banter, and enjoy friendship.

And you can check out the Fire Breathing Kittens podcast

on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, on YouTube, or wherever it is that you get your shows. I'll add a couple of links to the episode description of this

podcast episode.

And last but certainly not least, I wanted to tell you guys about a few different ways you can help support the sponsored a podcast. If you so choose, [00:39:00] as I said before, as I've said in the past, and as I will absolutely say again, in the future, I appreciate each and every one of you for listening.

It's definitely motivating for me and means a lot that

folks out there get some sort of benefit or appreciation from me putting out these episodes.

If you'd like to support the sponsor a podcast, here are a few different ways that you can do just that.

And then I'll check you all out next time. Peace.