Transcript
June Diane Raphael (0:00)
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Paul Scheer (0:30)
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Plus, you can save on all the latest accessories and displays like the Alienware 32.4K QD OLED gaming monitor. Visit alienware.com deals before these limited time savings end. Hello people of Earth, it is me, Paul Scheer. And before we get into today's matinee Shadow in the Cloud, I wanted to share some devastating news with you. Last Thursday, after a year and a half long battle with breast cancer, we lost our super producer Avril Halley. She was not in pain. She was surrounded by her friends and her family. And since we shared this news on social media, I have been completely and utterly blown away by the absolutely lovely outpouring of love and condolences that you all have given to her, her friends and her family. I've been talking to different members of her friends and family over these last couple of days and I'm just in awe that you all recognize what Avril brought to this show. I'm not good at this. I wish I was someone who could just sit down and speak so eloquently from the heart. But I know that it will be choppy and I just want you to go with me here As I try to just celebrate this remarkable, singularly wonderful person who was such a part of this show. A part that you didn't quite ever hear, as a matter of fact. And I think that's what makes it even more interesting that the reaction to her was so sincere and so connected, because she is the fabric of this show. Back in 2013, we had been doing this podcast for a handful of years, and we. We kept on coming up on this impasse, which was, yeah, that was a bad movie, but it wasn't fun to watch. It felt like a slog. And we had this idea, why don't we reach out to our listeners and see if anyone would want to help us find bad movies? So we got all these submissions in, and I remember Avrils because she was not only a bad movie aficionado, but she was this hilarious editor. She had made these incredibly funny pieces for, like, MTV films. When she sent me her resume, it just jumped off the page. She had this kind of quirky, fun sensibility. And when we first zoomed, and I don't even think there was zoom back then, I think when we first FaceTimed, I was just blown away by the way that she was able to articulate the movies that worked for this show. And since 2013, she has been picking every movie for this show. All these characters, these insane worlds, these movies that I've never heard of came from her. I was always adamant to make sure that we gave her. Her proper due, her proper credit, because she really did control and help us find our own voice of the types of movies that we wanted to talk about here. And she was specific and funny about the specificness of it. I remember I would send her films like, what do you think about this? And she would shoot them down 90% of the time. That's why at a certain point, when people would submit movies to me, I'm like, I can't. I'm not even gonna do it. Because Avril has the secret sauce. And it was never adversarial, but it was like she knew why it wouldn't work. And then conversely, I'd be like, I'm not sure about this movie, and it would work perfectly. Never doubt Avril. That's what I learned working with her. And I just was looking back through our emails because we do have an interesting relationship. You know, she's somebody who was very much a part of my life in the fact that this show is a part of my life, but we had a relationship that was primarily based in emails. And occasionally I Would get to see her, you know, when she was in London, just on a trip, she came backstage and got to meet my kids and Jason and June. And we've met a handful of times in person over the years. But this one was really special because she was away with a friend. Just. She happened to be in Europe. We happened to be there as well. And I watched her interact with my boys, and it was so sweet and so kind and she was so interesting. She had these coins that her dad. Her dad would give coins to people that, you know, as a. Like a remembrance of them. Like, we met and they exchanged coins. I think it's very much like a military thing, right? You. You pass these special coins. And she gave both my sons these coins. And these coins are on our dresser, my kid's dresser, to this day. And I talk to them about Averill this past weekend and that moment, that just small moment that they spent with her, they remembered her and they lit up. When I was asking, do they remember the woman who came backstage and gave them these coins? And she goes, oh, she was so cool. She was so funny. And that, to me, is what is so kind of special about Avril. When I look at the response, the outpouring of love from our audience, you know, as she's been battling this cancer. When we first announced it, we had known about it for a while, but when we were first brought it to you, all the amount of gifts and emails that you sent to her were just overwhelming. I mean, not even just overwhelming. They were so heartfelt. And I'm reading people's messages, condolence messages to her and her family, and I'm just blown away because she is a person who you may not have ever even heard on the microphone, on how did this get made? But she is such a part of this show. She had her own show, Movie Bitches, which she co hosted with Andrew. And Andrew and I have been in touch over the last year. Most more and more as Avril was battling cancer. And I'm just blown away by the work that she did there too. Her show is really funny. She's always been very funny, and she opened us up to so many interesting things. I'm so thankful for her. And this loss is massive. It really is. You know, she was young, and when I talked to her when she first was diagnosed with breast cancer, her attitude was so incredibly positive and resilient. And as it progressed, there were highs and there were lows, and we've just been rooting her on and championing her, and I just Want you to know that talking to Andrew, her partner on Movie Bitches, and talking to certain members of her family, they are so blown away by your support of her. You know, she made a big difference. She was someone who I think made this show. She set a guiding light for us. And when we first had to start picking movies without her, I had this voice in my head of, how do we do this? Like Avril, how do we know that this is right? And it's something that we all take incredibly seriously. Because Avril took it seriously. She was a lover of camp. She was a lover of a certain type of specific oddness. And she was full of life and love and had this amazing laugh every time I got to spend time with her. I was so thankful that she was a part of the team. And like I said, not a part of the team that I spoke to every single day, but a part of the team that I looked forward to when I got an email from her and I felt bad when she rejected one of the movies that I would give her her eye for. Recognizing what was funny was second to none. And I wanna. I don't know how to celebrate her. I don't. Because there's not one thing I can say, but the show is a tribute to her. It's a testament to her. We will continue to work under her constraints that she has, you know, given us. And one of the things that we do in our live shows is we play these videos, these videos that mashed up certain things from movies that we have done. And she hosted these on Movie Bitches, but sometimes would send me one on the side and I would play it exclusively for our live audiences. And I wanna play this one because I just think it captures her ear. When we were talking about the movie the Snowman, we talked about this character, Harry Hole. And this one is just a mashup of people saying Harry Hole with a very straight face. So enjoy one of Averill's signature mashups, Harry Hole.