← Live Wire with Luke Burbank
Live Wire with Luke Burbank
Maria Bamford, Brandi Brown, and The Reasonable Doubts
00:51:24
This episode features stand-up from Maria Bamford, comedian and crop artist Brandi Brown, and music from The Reasonable Doubts.
Loading summary
Transcript181 lines
- [00:03]
Luke Burbank
Hey there. Welcome to Livewire. I'm your host, Luke Burbank. We are doing something real fun on the show this week. So a couple of months back we packed everything up and we headed on out to the Twin Cities in Minnesota to find out everything there is to know about the Minnesota State Fair. And we had just the person to tell us about it, comedian and amateur crop art enthusiast, Brandi Brown. We also went out there to hear some stand up comedy from the legend herself, the pride of of Duluth, Minnesota, Maria Bamford. And then finally, we had a kind of incredible musical guest. Now, yes, they are an amateur band and they do play cover songs, but they are an amateur band composed entirely of Minnesota State supreme court and district court judges. And they are called the Reasonable Doubts. And the verdict is in, folks. They rocked. We cannot wait for you to hear it right after this.
- [01:01]
Elena Passarello
The creative economy is broken, but some people are still making it work.
- [01:04]
Luke Burbank
We're here to find out how.
- [01:06]
Elena Passarello
I'm Anna Marie Cox.
- [01:07]
Luke Burbank
And I'm Open Mike Eagle.
- [01:08]
Elena Passarello
Past due is our podcast about what it really takes to survive as a creative today.
- [01:12]
Luke Burbank
When one job isn't enough, three still won't cover your bills and success does not guarantee stability.
- [01:18]
Elena Passarello
With guests like Paul F. Tompkins, Taylor Lorenz, Adam o', Connover, Jamie Loftus, Rhett.
- [01:22]
Luke Burbank
Miller, and a whole lot more.
- [01:24]
Elena Passarello
Past due with Anna Marie Cox and Open Mike Eagle. Wherever you get your podcast.
- [01:28]
Luke Burbank
New episodes every week.
- [01:30]
Odoo Announcer
This show is supported by Odoo. When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. Odoo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need. Check out odoo@odoo.com that's O D O O.com from PRX.
- [02:02]
Maria Bamford
It's live.
- [02:11]
Elena Passarello
This week. Comedian and Minnesota State Fair expert Brandi Brown.
- [02:16]
Brandi Brown
I mean, I grew up going to the state fair when I was like a little kid. My family, they did put me on a leash, but it was like a.
- [02:22]
Elena Passarello
Humane one with stand up comedy from Maria Bamford.
- [02:26]
Maria Bamford
I could retire to Pahrump, Nevada in the middle of the sentence if I would just stop instacarting individual cans of.
- [02:35]
Elena Passarello
Pillsbury Crescent rolls and music from the Reasonable Doubts and our fabulous house band. I'm your announcer, Elena Passarello. And now the host of Livewire, Luke Burbank.
- [02:52]
Luke Burbank
Thank you, Elena Passarello. Thanks everyone for tuning in from all over America. And thank you for coming out to the beautiful Fine Line in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We have such an amazing show in store for everyone this week. I'm so excited to get to it. We got to kick things off, though, like we always do, with the best news we heard all week. All right, here's the thing. If you have looked at the news, you realize.
- [03:25]
Elena Passarello
Ouch. Yes.
- [03:27]
Luke Burbank
That it's not great.
- [03:28]
Ann McKeague
No.
- [03:29]
Luke Burbank
But that's where we step in, Elena. What's the best news you heard all week?
- [03:32]
Elena Passarello
I heard some Yogi Berra news. Huh.
- [03:36]
Luke Burbank
Okay. I'm always here for Yogi Berra news.
- [03:39]
Elena Passarello
His centenary is this year, and in honor of that, there's a Yogi Berra Museum and Cultural center at Montclair State University in New Jersey. And they have a stadium there named after Yogi Berra. And the weekend before his 100th birthday, they had 2,358 people show up in this stadium to honor Yogi Berra by having the world's largest game of catch. Guinness Book of World Record Making. It's the first time anything in Montclair, New Jersey, has ever been on the Guinness Book of World Records.
- [04:16]
Luke Burbank
Really?
- [04:16]
Elena Passarello
And they thought, because Yogi Berra, you know, I don't know if everybody knows Yogi Berra. He was this great baseball player. He played for the Yankees. And then he became this personality who had all these really funny kind of tautological sayings, like, I think it ain't over till it's over is a Yogi Berra original.
- [04:31]
Luke Burbank
That sounds about right.
- [04:32]
Elena Passarello
And he had one like, if you see a fork in the road, take it, Take it. Yeah. The future ain't what it used to be, which is now just. It's just true.
- [04:40]
Luke Burbank
Yeah. Yeah.
- [04:41]
Elena Passarello
But he was such a friendly, personable guy, and catch is such a friendly, personable sport. But the coolest thing about this article I read is what it takes to make a Guinness World Record. Like, there were adjudicators there, and they set rules for these 1,179 pairs of people playing catch. They had to be three meters apart. You could throw overhanded or underhanded, but you couldn't roll the ball. You also couldn't be on your cell phone. So no tiktoking, no videoing of the catch, which would be really hard to do. And they all had to play catch for five minutes. And then when it was over, there were these. These judges that kind of went around and they disqualified eight pairs of people, but it was still enough to break the record. And then they held up a big certificate and I think they stole Yogi Berra's hall of Fame plaque from Cooperstown. And it was there. And everybody came and took a look at that.
- [05:32]
Luke Burbank
Do you go if you grew up in Georgia? I grew up in the Pacific Northwest where we would say, let's go play catch. But other places it's have a catch.
- [05:40]
Elena Passarello
Yeah. Like Field of Dreams.
- [05:42]
Luke Burbank
Does that have a catch territory?
- [05:43]
Elena Passarello
I feel like I come from. Throw the ball around.
- [05:46]
Luke Burbank
Country.
- [05:47]
Elena Passarello
You know, you want to go outside and throw the ball around.
- [05:49]
Luke Burbank
I come from. Dad said he'd be back any moment. Country.
- [05:52]
Brandi Brown
Yeah, you come from.
- [05:54]
Elena Passarello
Yeah.
- [05:54]
Luke Burbank
Let's get my mitt ready. Just sit on this curb adorably.
- [06:01]
Elena Passarello
Wearing that hat.
- [06:02]
Luke Burbank
Yeah. Wearing the actual hat I'm wearing for the show this week. You know, I think I have to say, Elena, the best news that I heard this week was that our airplane was actually landing at MSP airport here in the Twin Cities.
- [06:14]
Ann McKeague
Yeah.
- [06:15]
Luke Burbank
As we were.
- [06:16]
Brandi Brown
Very fair, very fair.
- [06:20]
Luke Burbank
As I was sort of explaining to the crowd here at Fine Line before we started recording, I had a real adventure, like a planes, trains and automobiles level adventure trying to get here. You all came yesterday and were enjoying all the beauty and all the cool stuff there is to do here in the Twin Cities.
- [06:39]
Elena Passarello
All the juicy Lucy's. All the juicy's Lucy, Yes.
- [06:43]
Luke Burbank
It's like attorneys general. Yes. I was suffering through all of these crazy plane delays and then cancellations that just dovetailed in this kind of perfect storm of it taking me like a day and a half to get here to Minneapolis from the. Not that far away, Portland, Oregon. And you know, it was very frustrating, but something kind of also beautiful happened. And maybe this is like the best news part of it, which is I ended up falling in with this crew of people that since yesterday afternoon had been trying to get here to the Twin Cities. And we had been through it together.
- [07:24]
Elena Passarello
You together have been shuffled on and off of myriad vehicles that weren't taking you to Minneapolis.
- [07:29]
Luke Burbank
It turned out we had together. We had run to the plane that decided to push back from the gate right before we got there. We had all stayed overnight in Seattle. We had, yeah. On and off the plane. We were all on sort of a first name basis. There was like, there was the couple that was trying to get to a wedding in International Falls, Minnesota. Those are people that have driven to International Falls. I was like, so that's what a suburb of the Twin Cities? It's like A suburb of Ontario. I'm now learning. There was this really sweet dad with his two, like, maybe sort of tween teenage sons. He was taking them to see their first football game at his alma mater, St. John's University in Collegeville, which was really sweet. There was a local media celebrity on the flight, and I don't mean me. I mean Sue Williken, who explained that she writes the backwards glance column at the Fergus Falls newspaper where she lives.
- [08:31]
Brandi Brown
Fergus Falls.
- [08:36]
Luke Burbank
By the way, about, like, the sixth delay that we went through. Sue, she said. Sue Williken of the newspaper, she said, I was gonna write my column about geese this week, but now I'm writing about this airplane delay. And I was like, me too. We're not that different. I'm totally dining out on this. When I get to Minneapolis with the Livewire crowd. I guess the point is not to be corny, but it's like, when things are so bad as they are every second of every day, it's easy to get bummed out. But also when you're in something that really sucks, like terminal travel delays and stuff, people, human beings tend to actually kind of take care of each other and bond and really show up for each other, you know, and that was my experience in the last, like, 28 hours. So making friends in unusual places, that's the best news that I heard this week. All right. You are listening to Livewire radio from prx. This week, we're at the Fine Line in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Our first guest is actually from right here in the Twin Cities, but her comedy has taken her all over the country. She's opened for Josh Johnson, Guy Branham, and Hannibal Buress, among others, and is a regular at Acme Comedy Club here in town. In her non comedy life, she is. How do we say this? A power user of the Minnesota state fair, attending it multiple times in the same years to try different foods and submit her crop art, which historically has done very well. Please welcome Brandi Brown to Livewire. Brandy, welcome to Livewire. Where exactly did you grow up? Did you grow up in the Twin Cities? Twin Cities?
- [10:37]
Brandi Brown
Yeah, in Minneapolis.
- [10:42]
Luke Burbank
I'm wondering, when did you become a kind of a certified Minnesota state Fair, like, obsessive?
- [10:49]
Brandi Brown
Well, I mean, while everyone was at parties, I was at home studying the blade of the state fair. And. No, I mean, I grew up going to the state fair when I was, like, a little kid. When I was five, my family, they did put me on a leash, but it was like a humane one where they. It was just like a strap around my wrist so everyone could eat food. But I couldn't wander too far away, so I'd go with my grandparents, my mom, my aunt. So, yeah, I've been going off and on, but I really got into it, like, after college. Yeah. And I entered crop art for the first time in, like, 2017, 2018 or something like that.
- [11:20]
Luke Burbank
Let's talk about crop art. Yeah, we've actually got some of your crop art here. First of all, for the people, coastal elites listening to this on the radio. Can you explain what crop art is?
- [11:31]
Brandi Brown
So I think it started in, like, the 60s, and it kind of came out of, like, farmers, like, their crops. They made art. And I'm not, like, the historian of this, but, you know, they have to be seeds or plants. There are many categories that are grown in Minnesota and that, like, farmers use. And there was a big controversy a few years ago I was a part of about yellow mustard, and they tried to ban it, but we fought back because it turns out there's, like, a couple farms up north that use them, and they were gonna only limit us to brown mustard.
- [12:02]
Luke Burbank
But wait, because it was not considered native to Minnesota.
- [12:05]
Brandi Brown
No, it doesn't have to be native. It just has to be a crop that's, like, used here or grown here. And so people make art with it. They make wearable art. I made sneakers one year. They were state fair themed. There's a category where you can dye the seeds and paint them, which. Well, we can.
- [12:21]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, we've actually got some of your stuff. Can I get maybe. Elena, could you pass this box to Brandy?
- [12:27]
Brandi Brown
Yeah.
- [12:27]
Luke Burbank
And. Yeah, Brandy, could you kind of take us through some of these pieces and what the inspiration was?
- [12:32]
Brandi Brown
Well, this one is. It was in the dyed category, and I made this one in 1988 at the Summer Olympics. That was the last year. They, like some people know the story because I tell all the time. That was the last year they had live peace doves released at the opening ceremonies. Because what happened was that they released the pea stubs, and they went to rest on top of the cauldron. And then the torchbearers, they were raised up, and they lit it from above and cooked the peace doves. And from 1920 to 1988 were the last times they would use live peace doves. I made a little piece 35 years since live doves at the Olympic Games.
- [13:10]
Elena Passarello
What seeds make the flames?
- [13:12]
Brandi Brown
Well, that's dyed mustard seed, and there's some.
- [13:15]
Ann McKeague
Yeah.
- [13:16]
Brandi Brown
And what I did is I asked someone on Facebook in the neighborhood group if they had A blowtorch. And I toasted one of the doves just to get the point across.
- [13:24]
Luke Burbank
I feel like it's so interesting. We're in Minnesota. We're doing crop art. It's about doves, and it's not about when doves cry.
- [13:31]
Elena Passarello
Yeah. Good.
- [13:31]
Brandi Brown
Yeah.
- [13:32]
Luke Burbank
Do you feel like the whole topic of Prince is a little over described here in the area? Is that like. Like in Seattle, it's like every football game, they show people throwing the salmon, and I'm like, we get it. Is that, like what it is to obsess over Prince here?
- [13:45]
Brandi Brown
Yeah, I think so. But everyone, like, I feel like people are like, oh, how do you know you're really a Minnesotan? It's like, over a certain age, if you have a story about Prince, then you're really a Minnesotan. I have a story.
- [13:56]
Luke Burbank
I mean, I've got nowhere to be.
- [13:57]
Brandi Brown
Okay. So when I was like a toddler or something, my aunt was dating Jerome from the time. And so she was babysitting me. And Prince called and was like, hey, they needed to do business or whatever. And so my aunt brought me over and I was roaming around Prince's house. You know how, like, little kids walk under tables? Well, I did that and I hit my head and I freaked out. And then Prince was like, okay, this needs to stop. And so he picks me up and he's like showing me around his place, and he gets like a bag of peas to put on my head. Frozen bag of peas. And then he gave me back to my aunt and him and Jerome finished. Whatever. And then when I. Apparently my aunt told me this, when it was time to go, I demanded that Prince make me a snack bag to go. And he did. He put cookies in there. So. Yeah, that's where Prince died. Yeah.
- [14:47]
Luke Burbank
This is Livewire from prx. We're talking to the comedian and crop artist enthusiast number one Minnesota state fair lover, Brandi Brown. We gotta take a very quick break on this special show from the Twin Cities, but don't go anywhere. When we come back, Brandi will tell us why she never misses a llama costume contest. More Livewire coming your way in just a moment. Look, I'm not saying that I have a coffee problem, but I am definitely telling you that I am reaching for yet another cup of coffee. And if you know exactly where I'm coming from, let me tell you about fetch coffee roasters right here in Portland. They're small batch women owned. And here is the kicker. Every bag that you buy sends a dollar to a dog in need. Think about it. Fetch Coffee roaster. So basically, right now, your coffee addiction, you can consider that to be like philanthropy, which is amazing. They are right now roasting a special blend for Livewire. It's called Get Wired. Plus, they've got their great regular roast lineup, like Muddy Paws and Zoomies. And if you want to get 15% off right now, as a live wire listener, all you got to do is is use code Livewire. This is on your first order. Use the code livewire@fetchgroasters.com Fetch coffee wagtails. Welcome back to Livewire from PRX. I'm your host, Luke Burbank, here with Elena Passarello. All right, we are coming to you from Minnesota this week. And before the break, we were talking to comedian and Minnesota State fair enthusiast Brandi Brown about her crop art, which she actually sells at the state fair there, and which is this really incredibly, like, detailed art that has these great stories behind her particular. Her particular submissions. Elena, let's jump back into that conversation now. This is Brandy Brown on Livewire at the Fine Line in Minneapolis. So let's talk about this crop art.
- [16:56]
Elena Passarello
Yeah.
- [16:56]
Brandi Brown
So this next one I made last year, I don't know if you guys are familiar with the Pop Tarts bowl that happened college football game where they had Pop Tarts mascots, and at the end, one of them got toasted in a large toaster. But I made the Pop Tart and it says crop tart. Yeah, this one. Yeah. And. Yeah, this one has, like, oats for the grass and a lot of quinoa and some poppy seeds and corn and sorghum and.
- [17:28]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah.
- [17:29]
Brandi Brown
Thank you.
- [17:30]
Luke Burbank
That was one of those moments, the Pop Tart bowl, where it had not been fully thought through. The denouement of the mascot.
- [17:38]
Brandi Brown
Yeah. And this last one is a Minnesota angle. The skier Lindsey Vaughn, in 2005, she was in a ski race in France, and she won the ski race. And what they would typically do at this race is they would present the winner with a cow, like a ceremonial cow. They take a picture. They'd get rid of the cow. I mean, just move it. They wouldn't kill it in front of her or anything. And then give them the check. And Lindsey Vonn at this point goes, I want the cow. And they're like, you cannot have the cow. And she says, no, I want the cow. And so I think, like, the head of the US Ski Team had to negotiate with this French ski resort to get the cow. And not only did she get the cow and Again, the check was maybe like $5,000. It turns out this cow was pregnant, so it was like a $20,000 cow.
- [18:25]
Luke Burbank
Smart.
- [18:25]
Brandi Brown
And it was referred to as Lindsey Vonn's bonus cow. And I made a piece about Lindsey Vonn's bonus cow. And yeah, she took the cow. Yeah, she took the cow to Austria where she had been training. And it's like a dairy cow, so it just lived there. And they had a family of cows. And then she later won a goat that lived at a different farm in Austria.
- [18:50]
Luke Burbank
Lindsey Vaughn is mostly being paid in livestock.
- [18:53]
Brandi Brown
Oh, at this point. Yeah, I think so.
- [18:55]
Luke Burbank
It's very beautiful. By the way, Brandi, all joking aside, you clearly have artistic skills. You're clearly very funny. Do you think of yourself as a comedian and also as a visual artist?
- [19:07]
Brandi Brown
I think I'm more in the crafter vein when it comes to crop art. Because a thing that's happened this year is that there's a fine arts building at the state fair where they do fine arts. And the crop art is actually. And we. We did a show at the State Fair in 2019, maybe.
- [19:23]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, that was amazing.
- [19:25]
Brandi Brown
Yeah. And the crop art goes in the horticulture agriculture. Horticulture building because it came from farmers. And it has like a. It tends to be very left wing because there's a progressive history of the farmers. The farmer labor, like DFL and. Yeah, but it's, like, open. Like, there's sometimes, occasionally conservative people doing that. But, like, it's, you know, so it's very much like the fine arts is so hard to get into. And curated. A lot of the fine artists are like, I could just do crop art. Everyone gets displayed. And so, like, all these, like, really good artists are starting to do crop art. It's gotten more famous. People have been running, like, crop art seminars and stuff. And so it's really. When I. People are like, oh, you didn't win. I was like, if you saw who was there, it makes sense. Like, I'm proud of what I did, but I. Yeah, there's some incredible art.
- [20:14]
Luke Burbank
What do you think makes the Minnesota State Fair, I guess, special? Because I know Minnesotans are very proud of this state fair. It's a big deal.
- [20:24]
Brandi Brown
Well, I had this area. I actually kind of thought about this year in the context of, like, you know, there's. Everyone talks about the urban, rural divide, and it's really. Every state that has a good state fair tends to have their state fair in an urban center that forces, like, city people to mix with, like, you know, we call it outstate Minnesota or like, you know, farmers or whatnot. So you look at, like, Minnesota, you look at Texas, you look at Iowa, I guess, whatever, they're doing their best. But yeah, it's really like people, it's massive. First of all, the fairground footprint, I think it's the same size as like Disney World proper. And it's just. It's so many different things and so many people coming together and sharing their interests. I mean, everyone wants to talk about the new foods and they're really interesting to some people, but it's really the other stuff. Like, my favorite event is every year I go see the 4H Llama costume contest. That's my favorite. And it sees.
- [21:25]
Luke Burbank
We have a few past winners here with us.
- [21:27]
Brandi Brown
Yeah, just these kids who dress up their llamas, their alpacas, and they work really, really hard on it. And I actually did a story for defector in 2023 where I, like hung out with them for a couple days. They do llama obstacle courses. And, you know, 4H has a musical.
- [21:42]
Luke Burbank
Oh, right, yeah, yeah, I've heard about that.
- [21:45]
Brandi Brown
I think a writer here in town, Steve Marsh, once called it Haystack Glee.
- [21:50]
Luke Burbank
Is there a 4H musical that stands out in your mind? Is particularly well executed.
- [21:58]
Brandi Brown
And I. No shade to these children, but they've got the spirit. Not always the pitch, but they've got the spirit. There was one year where the whole. And it's only like a half hour, so there are always very simple premises. One year, the premise was these kids walk up in the jungle, don't know why, and they open with a medley of jungle theme tunes like welcome to the Jungle. Like it's a jungle out there. And they, you know, they're dancing and they. The cool thing about this is that they get there for like, it's like a 22 day thing. And the fair is 12 days. They get there, you know, 10 days before. They live in the 4H building on campus. There was a swine flu outbreak one year and all the 4H kids had to go home. But yeah, it's just, you know, you see it. It's a quick thing. You can have a beer while watching it.
- [22:42]
Luke Burbank
Do you tend to go like a lot during the same year? I mean, are you going almost every day or once a week or what's your schedule like?
- [22:49]
Brandi Brown
So I do have a schedule. So I go opening day and I try the new foods. The website heavy table. They do a lot of great food reviews and stuff, and that's fun. And I go check out my crop art and see how I did. Then my friends fly in on llama day, which is every. The only Wednesday of the state fair. It's been like that for, like, 20 years.
- [23:08]
Elena Passarello
Oh, cool.
- [23:08]
Brandi Brown
And we spend the whole day at the fair, and then the next day we do a half day at the state fair wherever we missed.
- [23:16]
Luke Burbank
So you're not like, you know, there's these. There are folks that go to Disneyland every day.
- [23:20]
Brandi Brown
There is a woman who I think does too much state fair. I follow her. Her accounts. Memories on a stick. She's. She just takes 12 days off from work. Everything she eats, she keeps track of it. She talks about all the exhibits she goes to. The way I met her is I was doing this llama story, and there was a llama named manly man. And I was taking a picture of manly man, and I just see this woman, like, barrel. She's like, manly man, you're back. And she's like, this is my favorite llama. And I was like, who are you? But she's a delight. And so there are people who do that. And I'm like, no.
- [23:51]
Elena Passarello
So, right.
- [23:52]
Luke Burbank
You're sort of our expert on the Minnesota State Fair, but you're by no means the person who attends it the most during.
- [23:57]
Brandi Brown
No, I definitely, like, ask her. I was like, hey, is manly man back? And she's like, no, he retired. And I was like, all right.
- [24:04]
Luke Burbank
Can you tell me about these buttons that you're making?
- [24:06]
Brandi Brown
Yeah, so I do stand up comedy, and I have three buttons that this one I'm wearing. It has an. Like, they're based on bits I have. It's an owl. It says praying for you, but it's praying with an e. Because on Facebook one time I saw this woman's adult son. He went missing, and then people were writing stuff, and one woman said, praying for you, but she spelled it wrong. And I was like, sounds like you took him honestly. So they were designed by an artist, Brooke Jessica Morgan. And I also have one with my cat on it, Claudette Cookie lion.
- [24:39]
Elena Passarello
Yeah.
- [24:39]
Brandi Brown
And it says an icon because she's named for the civil rights icon Claudette Colvin. And also cookie lion from Empire. Two icons. And then the third one I have is, it says melanin is not melatonin, because my ex once confused melanin melatonin. So I was, like, taking some, and I was having, like, crazy dreams. He's like, are you okay? And I was like, yeah, it's the melatonin. And then he was just like, I don't have that Problem. I'm white, and I'm like, what? And so I made buttons, so they're in the back. I'm selling them for $5. My check engine light went on, so please buy my buttons.
- [25:19]
Luke Burbank
Please give it up one more time for Brandi Brown here on Livewire. That was Brandy Brown right here on Livewire, recorded at the Fine Line in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For more information on what Brandi is up to, check out her Instagram. It's the Brandy, and that's Brandi with an I. Hey, special thanks this episode of Livewire to Catherine Tannehill of Waconia, Minnesota, and Michael Powers of Portland, Oregon. Catherine and Michael are part of the Livewire member community, and they are generously supporting us with a donation each month. And we are grateful for that support because it's how we are able to keep the show going. No, really, that is the only way that Livewire can exist. So a huge, huge thanks to Michael and Catherine for keeping Livewire going. You're tuned in to Livewire. I'm Luke Burbank. That's Elena Passarello right over there. Of course, each week on the show, we ask the Livewire listeners a question. And this week, inspired by our conversation with Brandi Brown, we asked the listeners what.
- [26:37]
Elena Passarello
Elena here is a decidedly northern Minnesotan one from Duluth's Greg. Greg says if you ever go to Duluth, you have to walk the lake Walk, which runs along Lake Superior. Greg says it's beautiful and the wind will exfoliate your face for free.
- [26:57]
Luke Burbank
Feels very Duluth.
- [26:58]
Elena Passarello
Yes.
- [26:59]
Luke Burbank
Although now is the time, Elena, to invest in Duluth because there are some studies out there that say, you know, once this planet is probably less livable than it is right now, we're gonna need things like relatively cold temperatures and access to lots of fresh water and exfoliating wind and free exfoliating wind. That's all happening in Duluth.
- [27:19]
Elena Passarello
All right, see you there.
- [27:21]
Luke Burbank
All right. What's something else that somebody says we must know about their hometown?
- [27:25]
Elena Passarello
Now, this one I really liked from Carla in Aust, Texas. I'll tell you why Carla said torches. Tacos.
- [27:33]
Luke Burbank
Oh, yes.
- [27:33]
Elena Passarello
Don't tell me afterward that you don't really like breakfast tacos because we'll have to revoke your Austin visitors pass. And here's the thing that I like about saying torches. There's a few torches. I used to live in Austin around town, and I like the idea that one of the best places to go isn't like a single spot.
- [27:50]
Luke Burbank
Yeah. What is something else hometown related that somebody wants to make sure we don't miss if we ever visit.
- [27:56]
Elena Passarello
Okay, Seattle boy. Let's see if you agree with Jordan's take. Jordan says the Fremont troll under the Aurora Bridge. Jordan explains that. It's like a local Bigfoot, only we know exactly where it lives under that bridge.
- [28:11]
Luke Burbank
I love the troll. The troll is so fun. I mean, Fremont, just as a neighborhood, that sort of area is just great. And then, yeah, you've got a troll. And I think it's like, it's, it's, it's grabbing. It's like sort of eating like a Volkswagen, like a V dub, you know, I can't say that word, by the way. Volkswagen. I've always said. I've always said Volkswagen.
- [28:30]
Elena Passarello
Well, now they have electric vehicles, so that works.
- [28:33]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, that would actually make more sense. Thank you. It's like eating a Volkswagen bug.
- [28:38]
Elena Passarello
So it's a painting of a troll?
- [28:40]
Luke Burbank
No, it's a big three dimensional concrete, I guess, sculpture. I don't know if the city actually 100%, like, cleared it, but it's there. Everybody loves it. It's not going anywhere. And yeah, I am fully in agreement that the Fremont troll is something you must see when you visit Seattle.
- [29:02]
Elena Passarello
Sold. I'll see you. We're gonna be in Seattle next month, and I know where I'm going now.
- [29:06]
Luke Burbank
Perfect. Hey, thank you to everyone who responded to our listener question. We really do appreciate it. You're tuned in to Livewire now. Judd Apatow called our next guest the funniest comedian in the world, which is like, it's really saying something. She's also a New York Times best selling author for her memoir, sure, I'll join your cult. And she was the star of, like, one of my very favorite shows to come out in the last however many years. It's called Lady Dynamite. It was on Netflix. She's just the absolute best. We're talking, of course, about Maria Bamford, who we managed to get to the Fine Line in Minneapolis, Minnesota to perform some comedy. Here she is the pride of Duluth.
- [30:02]
Maria Bamford
Oh, my gosh. How delightful. Can you believe it? This is a job. I'm at work.
- [30:13]
Ann McKeague
This.
- [30:14]
Maria Bamford
This is an S Corp. My tax ID is 452393745 and I'm clocking in as a buffoon. Hey, hey, nerds. We've entered fascism. And why? And why? Because everyone was worried about money, right? Money is irrational. Because we've all heard wealthy people worry aloud about money. It's heartbreaking. Oh, my gosh. We would love to give what a great cause, but we've Got two girls in private school and we're getting the kitchen and the bath redone. The house in Italy. So we're just a little cash. Oh, I've stopped listening to this romance novel. I don't care about any of the characters. Please let me know when there's been a murder. But you have to have empathy. You have to have empathy for oligarchs because what, what if it happens to you? That's the American dream. You know, somehow you end up. You know. I had some friends, they won the lottery. They moved into a black obelisk semi submerged in the sea. I did not see them for a decade. Cause we were eating at different restaurants. They weren't interested in the grand slam. You guys don't want to meet us at a truck. I should never worry about money. I should never worry about it again because I could retire to Pahrump, Nevada in the middle of the sentence if I would just stop instacarting. Individual cans of Pillsbury Crescent rolls. No bag, full contact delivery. And you gotta find me. I'm in the bougainvillea. I'm right here. I'm from Duluth. Whoa, whoa. Have you guys been to Duluth? All right. No, no, no. I love Duluth so much. A lot of my friends, they're worried about money. Friends from high school. I have a friend who's Christian and yet she is hustling like crazy. I started a multi level Christ based Christian marketing company called Lot's Daughters. I selling cut cone knives that I've hand dolled. It's called the 5150 collection for people who have taken, tried suicide and homicide, but they didn't succeed. I rewrote the Bible as a cowboy romance. Everybody's worried about money. I got Maria, Maria, Maria. I just thought of this. It's a cat toy, okay, but it's actually, it's a sex toy. So you can have it in your living room and nobody knows. Just imagine that I. Yeah, I like this job, but sometimes it's a non union so that you don't always know that you're gonna get paid. I once got a text from a billionaire. That's right, a billionaire has my number and. Oh, who's that? I'm not gonna say who it is. Let's just say it was grimace from the McDonald's franchise. A nine and a half foot tall purple berm of ermine has my number.
- [34:23]
Luke Burbank
And.
- [34:25]
Maria Bamford
Asked me to work on a Sunday. Of course I said no, because Sunday I got plans. That's when I shotgun a nitro Cold brew. I go to the dog park. I think that I'm talking to people, but I am yelling at them. I fall over. I let the dogs run over me in what we call a love festival, where the only ticket is a smile. And then my husband and I, we used to go back to our house in Southern California, which was affected in the fires. I remember when I left Minneapolis at the age of 20, 25, because I had a message from God, as you do, to move to la. And as I told my performance art community that I was leaving, an older woman, probably a woman my age now, came up to me, grabbed me by the shoulders and said, life turns on a dime. She's never been wrong. We lost her house to the fires, but, you know, we had insurance and all that stuff. But I was up there in the ashes and I was. You know, it's kind of a police state in certain areas of California, for sure. There's an unmarked suv, black suv. Cops get out, arms, their guns drawn. They come up on me and say, excuse me, ma'. Am. Excuse me. What are you doing on that property? Excuse me, ma'. Am. I was looking for my elephant ear succulents. I just was hoping maybe if one survived, I could replant it. Sorry, ma'.
- [36:08]
Ann McKeague
Am.
- [36:09]
Maria Bamford
Didn't. Didn't mean to frighten you. Just had to make sure you weren't one of the bad guys. I'm wearing 17 friendship bracelets. How do you think I got him? Of course I'm. Of course I'm one of the bad guys. When you don't have health care.
- [36:39]
Brandi Brown
That'S.
- [36:39]
Maria Bamford
When you turn to a podcast. And I love the therapist, Esther Porrel. Listen to Esther. She does it one time. Seems a little irresponsible, but she's great. You know, it's free, but you have to. She needs money, so she's doing the ads, you know. Today we'll be talking with the polyamorous squad. Who in Your group of four likes to be cc'd. Who likes to be BCC'd. Purple mattresses slip to up to 11. I like to sleep on my side like a seahorse. My husband likes to sleep starfish style. Honest. Tom.
- [37:23]
Odoo Announcer
Tom.
- [37:27]
Maria Bamford
It just feels like if you went to urgent care and then there was a merch table, you know, like, I appreciate the antibiotics and I would like to have a koozie. She talks about very taboo, you know, topics. So it is helpful trigger warning. We will be talking about domestic violence as well as sexual trauma. Hello, Fresh. Oh, God, do I love the peanut curry. It has so much quinoa and squash. Now she's just lying. She's from Europe. She's not eating that. She's not eating old vegetables from a garbage bag. But she does. Yeah, but she does important work, you know, things that nobody wants to talk about, nobody wants to bring up. The death of a child can tear apart a family, a community. There is no abatement from your grief until you yourself pass on. And that is why. Why not distract yourself by checking out your auto rates on progressive.com. esther 20 for 20% off because there are some losses you cannot insure against. You guys have been lovely. I. I choose jobs because I. I want to. I want to do them. I stopped working for this billionaire because he was such a pain in the ass trying to get paid. Grimace, it turns out, is he's. I don't know, he's worried about money, so he wouldn't pay me. So. Point is, my current work philosophy was given to me by a man riding the train in Philadelphia. My husband and I were on the quiet car. Older man gets on. He's playing his iPad at the highest setting. The price is right. The price is right. My husband taps him on the shoulder, says, hey, buddy, could you turn it down? This is the quiet car. This guy turns around and says what I now say to myself every day. I am just trying to enjoy myself. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.
- [40:08]
Luke Burbank
That was the inimitable, the legend Maria Bamford, recorded at the Fine Line in Minneapolis. Make sure you check out her extensive array of comedic work on Netflix and itunes and the Internet. She did a entire comedy special in her living room for her parents. They were the entire audience. And I still think it's one of the greatest comedy specials I've ever seen. So go check out Maria's work. We gotta take a quick break here on Livewire. But before we go, I want to tell you about next week's show. We are going to be joined by writer and podcaster Sona Movsessian. Now, for a long time, Sona was famously known for being Conan o' Brien's assistant, something she was, by her own admission, very bad at. Then she became famous for being one of the co hosts of the Conan o' Brien Needs a Friend podcast, which is, like, always one of the top shows out there. Then we're gonna get some standup comedy from Marcella Arguayo, who's gonna unpack the politics of airport parking. Then we're gonna get some music from the jazz duo Brown Calculus. They're Gonna bring us their cosmic sounds, which is really something. You gotta check this out. Do not miss next week's episode of Livewire. Tune in wherever you get the show. All right, onto that very quick break, which I want to tell you is going to be very fast, and you're going to want to stay through it, because when we get back, you're going to hear a live wire. First, we are going to be joined by a cover band made up entirely of Supreme Court and state judges from the state of Minnesota. Very on brand for this episode and the whole weekend that we had in the Twin Cities. They are called the Reasonable Doubts, and they undoubtedly rock. More Livewire coming your way in just a moment. This is Livewire. I'm Luke Burbank here with Elena Passarello. All right, where do I start with our musical guest this week? Alayna? I don't know. Okay. Like, about a year and a half ago, Ann McCaig was feeling stressed at work. This happens, right? To all of us. And so I guess to sort of like blow off some steam, she emailed a bunch of her colleagues and she was like, hey, would you like to start a cover band with me? Cause Ann had always kind of dreamed of being like a country music singer. And a bunch of her co workers said, yeah, totally, we would love to do that. But here's the thing. Ann McKeg is Justice McKeagh of the Minnesota State Supreme Court. And the people she was emailing, they're also judges, some of them of the state Supreme Court, some of them state judges in Minnesota. So they end up forming this nine member band, and they are called the Reasonable Doubts. And we got them to the Fine Line Theater in Minneapolis. Now, this is the thing, Elena. They had just played this benefit concert in Duluth. It's like a fundraiser. It's something to do with the law. And the conference is called La La Palooza. These are real things that I am saying to you. And I know this sounds made up, but anyway, please take a listen to what I am very confident is saying. The only all judge band that you are going to hear on public radio this weekend, they're covering Authority song by John Mellencamp. This is the reasonable doubts on LiveWell. All right, let's say hi to everybody up here. We have Ann McKeague, Supreme Court Justice, Minnesota State Supreme Court. We have Sarah Hennessy, a fellow Minnesota State Supreme Court Justice. We have John Bowen, Wright County District Judge. Wow, is he, like the hot one? We also have Mark Herzing of Mille Lacs County District Judge there. Also, we have County District judge from Asante, Amy Brosnahan, Mark Ireland, Ramsey County District Judge dale Harris, retired St. Louis county district Judge. We also have Luis Bartolome, Hennepin County District Judge right here. We don't have time for a song, but that was a great intro. Thank you to the reasonable doubts. All right, Ann, and I gotta ask you about this.
- [44:40]
Ann McKeague
Yes, sir.
- [44:41]
Luke Burbank
What was going on for you, like, personally, when you thought, what we need is a band made up in large part of justices from the Minnesota State Supreme Court.
- [44:51]
Ann McKeague
We don't have enough time for that. No, I was really thinking about just our workloads as judges. And, you know, we see people who are in crisis at the worst moments of their life, and we take that home with us. And so I was worried about, you know, my colleagues on the court, myself and all the people in district court. And I just thought, you know, we need to do something fun.
- [45:16]
Luke Burbank
Can we. I want to ask Sarah Hennessy something, if I can, which was, what was your thought, fellow Minnesota Supreme Court Justice? What was your thought when Ann sent out this email? Like, hey, should we start a band?
- [45:29]
Elena Passarello
You know, so I was in the district court at the time when she asked me to do it. And you don't say no to Justice McCaig when you're a district court judge.
- [45:36]
Maria Bamford
Which is why we're all here.
- [45:39]
Luke Burbank
Wow. I'm surprised. There are. I think it's maybe nine, ten people on stage. It's a lot of people. I'm surprised that there are this many people who have risen to a very high level of jurisprudence who also like to make music. Is there something about the brain of someone who goes into law and becomes a judge and somebody who wants to make music?
- [46:01]
Sarah Hennessy
I don't think so. I think it's the opposite.
- [46:02]
Luke Burbank
I think the.
- [46:04]
Sarah Hennessy
We're sort of living a world of logic and making factual determinations and applying the law to the facts and stuff. This is all different. It feels very different. And it's creativity. It's expression of creativity that we don't really get to do a lot at work. And, I mean, we didn't audition. The email went out. The email went out and we all raised our hands. This sounds lovely. This is nice.
- [46:27]
Luke Burbank
Wait a minute. They didn't make you audition? Yeah. Also, this is the first time hearing no one had to audition to get in the band. We flew all the way here from Portland. We heard about this hot band of judges. No one had to audition. What are some of the ethical implications of the songs that you pick like, could you do like Fortunate Son? Or, I don't know, a song that has a sort of, like, what could be construed as a political message to it?
- [46:54]
Ann McKeague
Well, it depends on who you ask. I mean, if you ask me, I think, oh, let's just do it.
- [47:00]
Luke Burbank
What's the lower court say?
- [47:02]
Sarah Hennessy
What?
- [47:02]
Brandi Brown
The lower courts.
- [47:04]
Sarah Hennessy
I'd like to overrule the justice. This may be my shot and I'm taking it.
- [47:08]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, yeah.
- [47:10]
Ann McKeague
No, we've actually tried to be more thoughtful about it because, you know, we're public servants and the public can be great, but the public can be brutal. And so we would never want to do anything that would allow anybody who has to come before us to actually feel like they didn't get a fair shot.
- [47:30]
Luke Burbank
Right.
- [47:30]
Elena Passarello
And if I could add one more thing, please. We're doing this in the evening off hours. No taxpayers are paying for this. Yeah, good to know.
- [47:37]
Luke Burbank
Now, here's my question, though. If there was a judging emergency right now, are there any judges left in the state of Minnesota? I feel like they're almost all on stage here.
- [47:49]
Elena Passarello
We're on call.
- [47:50]
Luke Burbank
Okay. All right. Well, thank you, by the way, everybody, for talking to us. I want to hear a song. Now I'm wondering, what song are we going to hear?
- [47:58]
Ann McKeague
The Authority song.
- [47:59]
Luke Burbank
The Authority song. All right, this is the Reasonable Doubts here on Livewire, coming to you this week from Minneapolis.
- [48:23]
Odoo Announcer
W.
- [48:29]
Ann McKeague
They like to.
- [48:30]
John Bowen
Meet you in a compromising position. Well, they like to get you there with a smile on your face. Well, they think you're so cute cuz they got you in that condition.
- [48:45]
Brandi Brown
Come on.
- [48:46]
John Bowen
Mine I think it's say total disgrace and I say I fight authority, authority always wins well, I fight authority, authority always win well, I've been doing it since I was a young kid and I come out with men well, I fight authority, authority always win Man.
- [49:17]
Elena Passarello
I.
- [49:18]
John Bowen
Call up my preacher, I really beg for round five he said, you don't need no strength, you need a grow up son I said, growing old needs to grow an older man to die yet. Oh, dying to me don't sound like all that must fit so I said, when I fight authority, authority always wins well, I fight authority, authority always wins well, I've been doing it since I was a young kid and I come out great man well, I fight authority, authority always wins. Take it, Louise, take it, Louise Sa. No, no I said, oh no, no, no I fight authority, authority always wins well, I fight authority, authority always win well, I've been doing it since I was a young kid and I come out great men. Well, I fight authority, authority always win. One more time with us. When I fight authority, authority always wins. Well, I fight authority, authority always win. Well, I've been doing it since I was a young kid and I come out with that. Well, I fight authority, authority always win.
- [51:45]
Luke Burbank
Those are the Reasonable Doubts right here on Livewire. So there you go. That's what a nine member cover band made up of justices from various Minnesota state courts sound like. What a way to end. That's going to do it for this week's episode of Livewire. A huge thanks to our guests Brandy Brown, Maria Bamford and the Reasonable Doubts. Also huge thanks this episode to Marnie Gamble and the fine folks at the Fine Line in Minneapolis.
- [52:17]
Elena Passarello
Laura Hadden is our executive producer, Heather D. Michelle is our executive director, and our producer and editor is Melanie Savchenko. Evan Hoffer is our technical director, Trey Hester is our assistant editor and theja Polykonda is our production fellow.
- [52:30]
Luke Burbank
Valentine Keck is our operations manager and Ashley park is our marketing manager. Our house sound is by Stephen Sulak and our house band is Sam Pinkerton, Ethan Fox Tucker and A. Walker Spring, who also composes our music. This show was mixed by Eben Hoffer and Trey Hester.
- [52:48]
Elena Passarello
Additional funding provided by the City of Portland's Office of Arts and Culture. Livewire was created by Robin Tenenbaum and Kate Sokoloff, and this week we'd like to thank members Katherine Tannehill of Waconia, Minnesota and Michael Powers of Portland, Oregon.
- [53:02]
Luke Burbank
For more information about our show or how you can listen to our podcast, head over to livewireradio.org I'm Luke Burbank for Elena Passarello and the whole LiveWire 2 team. Thank you for listening and we will see you next week. Dear Livewire, when we first met, I was really shy. I had no idea we'd spend so much time together or that you'd be one to fill my heart with with joy and make me want to be a better person. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were here. I was busy reading a review from one of our many, many rapturously smitten listeners. Oh, wait. Actually, no. Sorry. This is from Elena. Anyway, the point is, it would be really helpful if you wanted to leave us a review. Feel free to say really nice things about us and we'll even read them now and then on the show so you might hear your review of Livewire read on the program itself. Reviews help other people hear about the show, and then we can keep doing this for a long, long time because we love having this job. Thank you so much. If you've left a review and if you're about to leave a review, you can go ahead and do it right. Where you get the podcast.
- [54:22]
Elena Passarello
From PRX.