TCB Informercial: Joel Kim Booster

Summary

The Commercial Break: TCB Infomercial — Joel Kim Booster

Release Date: July 15, 2025

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Overview

This episode of The Commercial Break’s “TCB Infomercial” series features comedian, writer, and actor Joel Kim Booster as a guest. Hosted by Bryan Green and Krissy Hoadley, the conversation explores Joel’s comedic career, personal life, and his experiences with recent projects: Love Hotel (Bravo), Fire Island (Hulu), Big Mouth (Netflix), and his podcast Bad Dates. The episode is a blend of candid personal reflections, dark comedy, sharp pop-culture commentary, and playful banter in the show’s trademark unruly, irreverent style.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Joel’s Upbringing, Coming Out, and Family Relations

• Adopted & Raised in a Conservative Household
  • Joel discusses being adopted by evangelical Southern Baptist parents and having adopted siblings.
  • Shares the “journal incident” where his parents discovered his sexuality.
    • Quote: "At that point in my life, my journal was less of like an introspective thoughts and dreams journal and more of just a Buzzfeed list of guys dicks I was sucking." — Joel Kim Booster [00:00]
• Emancipation and Long Path to Acceptance
  • Forced to emancipate at 17 after parents found out he was gay.
    • Quote: "I was emancipated when I was 17 when they found out I was gay. Didn’t talk to them again until I was in college. Reconciled a little bit ... things have gotten steadily better." — Joel [01:16, 14:04]
  • Father's eventual acceptance before he passed; mother's ongoing lack of support for Joel's marriage plans.
  • Discusses managing expectations:
    • Quote: "I stopped expecting certain things from my family a long time ago. Over a decade ago." — Joel [01:16]
• Self-Sufficiency and Chosen Family
  • Emphasizes not seeking familial approval, working for everything he has, and finding community support elsewhere.
    • Quote: "I haven’t taken a dime from my family since I was 17, and that has become cornerstone of my personality." — Joel [14:04]
    • Quote: "You find the family that can fill in the gaps. That’s what I've done—surrounded myself with people who provide the kind of emotional support a lot get from their families." — Joel [16:38]

2. Body Count, Dating, and “Bad Dates” Podcast

• About Bad Dates (Podcast)
  • Joel hosts comedians and storytellers who share cringe-worthy or disastrous romantic/sexual stories.
    • Quote: "We cast a wide net ... hookups, 10-year marriages that failed. They're all funny and instructive. I hope people are learning from the mistakes of my panel." — Joel [07:52]
  • Highlights some wild stories shared on the podcast—like a man soiling himself and framing his date [11:40].
• “Body Count” Conversation
  • The hosts and Joel lampoon the obsession (especially among men) with their partner’s sexual history.
    • Quote: "She chose you, bro ... body count is nobody else’s business but yours." — Joel [09:02]
    • Quote: "Let’s be real. People only care about body count when it comes to women ... it’s deeply rooted in this idea that women’s sexuality should be protected and preserved." — Joel [10:49]

3. Career Trajectory & Major Projects

Hosting Love Hotel (Bravo)

• Behind the Scenes
  • Joel describes hosting the dating show featuring Housewives, adapting to being around Bravo stars in person.
    • Quote: "It definitely felt a little bit like I was stepping into the Star Wars immersive hotel ... LARPing as a Bravo in Bravo land." — Joel [17:51]
  • Discusses the challenge of learning live hosting with little prep, fan reactions (both supportive and negative), and quickly assembling his wardrobe.
    • Quote: "Bravo fans are scary … I’ve learned so many new slurs that I did not know existed for Asian people." — Joel [20:23]
    • Quote: "There’s writers who have written clever puns … then a little bit of space for me to be me." — Joel [21:21]

Fire Island: Writing, Producing, Starring

• A Modern Gay Classic
  • Discusses the making of Fire Island as a modern-day Pride & Prejudice adaptation and its cultural significance.
    • Quote: "It’s a loose Pride and Prejudice adaptation … what Amy Heckerling with Clueless was a huge inspiration." — Joel [30:04]
  • On the importance and hope for more stories like it:
    • Quote: "My hope is that we won’t be looking back in 20 years and saying that Fire Island is still the only one that did what Fire Island did." — Joel [32:07]

Loot, Big Mouth & TV Writing

• Career “Failures” to Opportunities
  • Shares how being cast in Loot on Apple TV+ grew from a professional setback (Sunnyside’s cancellation) to a tailor-made role.
    • Quote: "It has the distinction of being the lowest rated premiere in NBC history ... And my career’s over. I don’t know, like, what I’m gonna do ... but Matt Hubbard ... loved working with me ... created the part of Nicholas with me in mind." — Joel [24:34]
  • Emphasizes letting time give perspective before declaring something a failure.
    • Quote: "Life is ... Don’t make the call in the moment ... you don’t know what the shape of the story is until you’re out of it." — Joel [27:02]
• Writing for Big Mouth
  • Joel worked three seasons as a writer on the hit animated puberty comedy.
    • Quote: "It was the most fun I’ve ever had in a writers’ room ... we just basically came in every day and relived our childhoods and mined them for storylines." — Joel [49:31]

4. Stand-Up Comedy and Artistic Evolution

• Balancing Stand-Up with TV/Film
  • Busy schedule means stand-up remains his main creative outlet but gets harder to fit as other opportunities multiply.
    • Quote: "The joke about stand-up is that you get so successful as a stand-up comic and they start asking you to do everything but stand-up." — Joel [27:43]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On his parents reading his coming-out journal:
  • "It was clickbait for my parents. They couldn’t resist … That feels like nurture, bitch." — Joel Kim Booster [00:00]
• On why “body count” conversations are fraught:
  • "People only care about body count when it comes to women." — Joel [10:49]
• On forging his own support system:
  • "You find the family that can fill in the gaps. Right. And that's what I've done." — Joel [16:38]
• On the pleasure and strangeness of hosting Love Hotel:
  • "It was like stepping into the Star Wars immersive hotel … LARPing as a Bravo in the Bravo land." — Joel [17:51]
• On his history with Fire Island:
  • "To get Margaret Cho in the movie was just such a surreal moment for me ... She birthed me in a lot of ways." — Joel [30:24]
• On Fire Island as a space for queer people:
  • "You step off that boat and onto the island … and a weight is lifted from you … There are no straight people. You can feel free." — Joel [33:24]
• On bullying and coming out:
  • "I’ve been getting called a faggot since I was, like, 8 or 9 … you hit 16…and you might as well just be fucking gay." — Joel [39:49]
• On the cultural importance of the Housewives:
  • "If you want to see women 50+ live complicated, layered stories on TV, Housewives is one of your only options—say what you will." — Joel [43:41]

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Important Timestamps

• 00:00 — Joel shares his “coming out” story and family dynamics
• 07:52 — Joel describes the Bad Dates podcast and its concept
• 09:02 — The "body count" conversation
• 11:40 — Wildest Bad Dates stories
• 14:04 — On relationships with parents and self-sufficiency
• 17:51 — Behind the scenes at Love Hotel and Bravo
• 20:23 — Fan responses, negative feedback, and challenges
• 24:34 — From “failure” on Sunnyside to getting cast on Loot
• 27:02 — Advice: don’t “make the call in the moment” on failure
• 30:04 — Fire Island as a “queer Pride & Prejudice”
• 33:24 — The magic and meaning of real Fire Island
• 37:34 — Coming out at 16; growing up gay in conservative America
• 39:49 — Teen bullying and the relief of coming out
• 41:55 — Love Hotel Season 2? The show’s impact
• 43:41 — Why Housewives is important for women over 50 on TV
• 47:22 — The reality of reality TV (“They clock into the drama factory…”)
• 49:31 — On writing for Big Mouth
• 50:44 — Quick plug for where to find Joel’s projects

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If You Haven’t Listened…

This episode offers a mix of insightful, often hilarious behind-the-scenes glimpses into comedy, TV, and the LGBTQ experience. Joel Kim Booster brings both biting candor and warmth—discussing his family struggles, path to independence, and navigating Hollywood as a queer comedian. The show’s hosts keep things light, irreverent, and rooted in pop culture, but allow space for Joel’s deeper moments to resonate. Essential for fans of offbeat, candid comedy interviews with a heart and a brain.

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Featured Projects & Where to Watch

• Fire Island — Hulu
• Love Hotel — Peacock
• Loot — Apple TV+ (Season 2 coming)
• Big Mouth — Netflix
• Bad Dates Podcast — All major podcast platforms

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Closing Note

Joel Kim Booster’s energy and humor shine throughout this conversation, making it one of the Commercial Break’s most entertaining and revealing Tuesday “infomercials.” Whether you’re a longtime fan or discovering him here, you’ll walk away laughing—and thinking.

Transcript

[Joel Kim Booster]

So obviously, as Christian as my parents are, they did not take it super well when I came out of the closet. Mostly because I did not come out of the closet. They read my journal when I was 17. Yes, gasp is right. It was rough because at that point in my life, my journal was less of like an introspective thoughts and dreams journal and more of just a buzzfeed list of guys dicks I was sucking. You know, like no content to sift through, just straight to the headlines. It was clickbait for my parents. They couldn't resist. They had to see, was tough for them. But what's even funnier, so I mentioned I was adopted. I have two adopted siblings. They're biological to my mom and dad, and I have an older brother. And a couple of years ago, he also came out of the closet, which is like, you know, like, I couldn't have planned a better prank, you know, like that. Oh, you pumped him good. Jesus. I can't. Oh, it's so funny. It's so delicious to me. Cause my parents, they really, like, they truly rolled the dice there, you know, like they made one themselves, they got one off the rack and they both turned out gay. You know, I don't know what the scientific argument is there, but that feels like nurture, bitch. Okay, that feels like your fault.

[Brian Green]

On this episode of the commercial break.

[Joel Kim Booster]

My mom and I are on, you know, about as good terms as we could be considering our differences. I was emancipated when I was 17 when they found out I was gay. Didn't talk to them again until I was in college. Reconciled a little bit in college, and then, you know, things have gotten steadily better. I mean, right before my, we were in the best place that we'd ever been in as father and son, I think, for my entire life. So I'm really grateful that I had that time with him before he passed. And you know, my mom and I are, you know, good. I think, you know, she's not coming to my wedding. She's not supportive of that part of my life. But the fact is, is that it doesn't bum me out. It doesn't make me sad. I barely think about it because quite honestly, I stopped expecting certain things from my family a long time ago. Over a decade ago.

[Brian Green]

The next episode of the commercial break starts now. Oh, yeah. Cats and kittens. Welcome back to the commercial break. I'm Brian Green. This is my dear friend and the co host of this show, Chris and Joy Hoadley. Best to you, Chris.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Best to you, Brian.

[Brian Green]

Best to you out there in the podcast universe. Thanks for joining us on a TCB infomercial Tuesday. We're back on our home turf here in the studio, but we are happy, proud, excited to welcome comedian, writer, producer, actor Joel Kim, host. Reality TV show host Joel Kim Booster is here and he's going to be joining us in just a few minutes. May I just for a moment list some of the laundry items that go on his resume?

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, I know, it's so many.

[Brian Green]

Are you ready? Fun, Employed. He's been on Conan. He did a Comedy Central Stand up presents. He's on BoJack Horseman Sunnyside shrill, the critically acclaimed Shrill. I think that was on Hulu. Big Mouth, one of our favorites here. Search party. ICarly Bob's burgers, curb youb Enthusiasm. American Dad. Joel Kim Booster, psychosexual. He did a standup special, the Standout in LGBTQ Celebration. Celebrity Jeopardy. The American Baking Show. Loot Glamorous. Is it cake? RuPaul's Drag Race Industry. And he is or was just wrapped up Love Hotel with some of the favorites of the.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Of the Housewives.

[Brian Green]

Of the Housewives. I know Chrissy is into that. Very much. So we'll have to ask him. We'll have to dig in to all the things. Joel Kim Booster is having a moment on Fire Island. That was what I was about to say. I think he probably would be most known for writing, producing, and starring in Love island, which has no Fire Island. Fire island might say Love island, because I'm thinking of Love Hotel.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Love. Love.

[Rachel]

Yeah.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

There is a Love. Is.

[Brian Green]

There is a Love island. But he's not a part of that. I'm sure he likes watching it, though. I hear Love island this year, I hear is spicy.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, yeah.

[Brian Green]

I. I was reading some reviews, and then I see Astrid is watching some of the. Is it Bachelorette that's back. Is it Bachelorette? Bachelorette is back. She's watching that. So I'm sure I'll get sucked in at some point. Standing in the bedroom waiting to take a shower for an hour, like, with my towel on. Like, huh. Let me just see what's going on with the kids.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Let me just check in.

[Brian Green]

And then an hour later, I'm like, oh, my God, did she really say that to him? Are they.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

That's why I can't even start it.

[Brian Green]

I know. It's crazy. Anyway, Joel wrote, produced, and acted in Fire island, which has been known to be an LGBTQ classic that many people have critically acclaimed.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

It's a great movie.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. And so I am excited to have you seen it. Have you seen Fire Island? Oh, yeah. I have not, but I will check it out. It's now put on the list of the 165,000 things that Brian will never get to because he has children. However, I do find the time to keep rerunning the same old British comedies night after night after night.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

It's your sleepy time.

[Brian Green]

It is my it's sleepy time tea for me to watch that. Maybe I should watch, like Love Hotel for us.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

It's the nature shows.

[Brian Green]

My daughter loves the nature shows. She likes to go. Any of those.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah, we just pop one of those on and night, night.

[Brian Green]

It used to be how the universe was made. What used to be my nighttime sleepy time tea. But then I started getting real cerebral about it and it was. Some of it was freaking me out a little bit.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Like I. I, like, as if I was tripping. Yeah. I didn't want to think too much. I was like, is that possible? I mean, you know, is it possible that you could go into a black hole and be stretched like spaghetti? I don't want to know that. Is it possible that that black hole in the middle of the Milky Way is sucking us all into the middle? But let us not dwell on bad things, Chrissy. Let us dwell on the good stuff.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Let's get into the good stuff, which.

[Brian Green]

Is Joel Kim Booster. All of the links are in the show notes. You know how we roll around here, like every other podcast on Earth, we put the links in the show notes and super excited to have a conversation with, dare I say, an up and coming icon, Chrissy.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

That's right. I think we could go there.

[Brian Green]

There you go. All right, we'll take a break and when we get back again, through the magic of telepodcasting, Joel Kim Booster right here with Chrissy and I. What do you think?

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I think we should do it.

[Brian Green]

All right, we'll see you on the flip side.

[Rachel]

Okay. You're probably wondering why I, Rachel, have taken over the voice duties at tcb. It's pretty simple. Astrid asked me to shut Brian up, even for a min. Well, lovely Astrid, your wish is my command. Do you want to help Astrid too? You know you do. Leave a message for her or me or Chrissy at 212-4333. TCB. That's 212-433-3822. You can be on the show too. Just call and say something, anything. Or text us and we'll text you right back. Promise. Then head over to tcbpodcast.com and get your free sticker. It's your constitutional right to a sticker. And we must abide. You get the point. Follow us on Instagram hecommercial Break and watch all the episodes on [e-mail] TheCommercialBreak Best to you and Astrid, especially Astrid.

[Brian Green]

Joel is here with us now. Joel, thank you very much. Where in the world do we find you? Where does this podcast find you today?

[Joel Kim Booster]

I am in my home in Los Angeles. I will not say where because I don't know your listenership.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

That's right.

[Brian Green]

I don't know if listeners. Well, we don't know our listenership either. I wouldn't. Fuck, no. Fuck no. We got some weirdos. I mean, every podcast, I think, has some weirdos. Bad dates, by the way, which is. Your podcast is great. Chrissy and I were just talking about it. We have both, previous to even knowing you were coming on, have listened to the show, tell the listeners what Bad Dates is about. Because the name isn't descriptive, right?

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yeah. I mean, no, it's kind of right there in the title. Right. Like, I bring on a panel of three comedians, funny people, friends, and we all just sort of go around the horn and share tales from the trenches, you know, bad dates. I mean, since I took over, we've really expanded the definition of a date to include things like hookups. We have people come on Talking about their 10 year long marriages that have failed. You know, it's a wide net that we cast over at Bad Dates. But they're all funny and instructive. I hope, I hope that people are learning from.

[Brian Green]

They take away a lot of the.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Mistakes of my panel.

[Brian Green]

Okay, so here's a good question. We'll wrap you into this conversation we've been having today. We were. There was a reel that came up. Alex Cooper had a reel on call her daddy. And someone, what I would call a child was complaining about his girlfriend's body count. And I thought to myself, that's like one of the most immature things you could ever be concerned about. I mean, like a conversation about sexual health and safety and all that. But that's a mature conversation. This is the furthest thing from it. It's like, you know, jealousy and being upset and insecurity. Yeah. Like, oh, you're gonna unfuck those people. Like, what are you gonna do?

[Joel Kim Booster]

Either. Yeah, she chose you, bro. That's the thing. Like she it on you, you know, and that it should be all that matters. Honestly, I really don't think body count is anybody else's business, but yours at.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

The end of the day.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, that was kind of our. Our. That was kind of our summation was. Hey, listen, if you don't want to know the answer to the question, if it's going to really upset you that much, just pretend like she. It's been. The body count is one and that's you, and you're the love God she's always been looking for. Otherwise, don't. Why are you even getting involved in the conversation?

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yeah, I guess I really don't understand what people are seeking from asking that question. You know, like, I think it is different for everybody who asks the question, but I guess for me, like, a lot of people I know who are concerned about their partner's body count, it is a. To them, they see it as an indication of a value system, and they want to make sure that their value systems align. And. But for me, that doesn't make any sense because I don't connect any sort of, like, sexual freedom to a sense of morality. Now, how they comport themselves, were they, you know, were they ethical about it? Were they truthful about it? Were they, you know, tricking people into having sex with them and that's why the body count was so high? That's a different thing. That's context. But, like, I think just body count in general is not, to me anyways, not an indicator of how virtuous someone is at the end of the day.

[Brian Green]

I could not agree with you more. I think that's really well said. And something that we discussed also is like, you know, the morality of. I think that's where people are coming from. They're coming from this place of. Do you. Do you have some. It's like that's a purity test or something, right? Have you.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah, especially when, like, a competition.

[Brian Green]

I don't know.

[Joel Kim Booster]

And let's. And listen, I don't mean to be like 2008 Tumblr right now, but let's be real. Like, people only care about body count when it comes to women. And it's deeply rooted in this idea that, like, women's sexuality should be protected and preserved. And it's this, you know, pride for the man that they eventually end up with. And I think it's like, you can talk around it all you want, but, like, at the end of the day, like, that impulse, the impulse to care about someone's body count, especially your female partner's body count, comes from that place.

[Brian Green]

And it's words in my mouth. It's a man child, right? It's someone Who. It's just based on some kind of misogynistic, you know, fantasy that you're the only one that you know is ever gonna touch that. So what is a. What is the worst thing you have heard on bad dates? Like, what's the worst date on bad dates?

[Joel Kim Booster]

Oh, man. I mean, there's so many to choose from. They're all awful in their own ways, I think. Like, there is a story out where a guy accidentally shat his pants and then tried to frame the woman that he was sleeping with.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, my God.

[Brian Green]

What?

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yeah, it was not the perfect crime, I'll tell you that. But, yeah, we got all sorts of. It runs the gamut from things that seem, like, fairly benign, like, oh, I got the ick because, you know, he wouldn't stop talking about his ex girlfriend and then got picked up by the ex girlfriend at the end of the day. You know, like, things like that. Like, pretty. You know, like, bad, for sure. But then there's also, like, plenty of stories of people who walk into what looks like the substance bathroom and, you know, fear for their lives and their organs.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

The scary ones.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yeah. We get a nice variety for sure, though.

[Brian Green]

Oh, my God. That's. I like that. We get a lot of emails from people who, like, I don't know, for some reason they think we're going to be some kind of love coach to them or something. And we've gotten some wild stories. But I always am curious about whether or not, because of the nature of our show, if people are using their imagination a little bit more than they are using, like, anything based in reality. But then we have one guy who wrote us and he said that he was engaged to someone, and then the mom, like, took pictures, nude pictures of him in a bed. So they were at an engagement party or a party before the wedding, and the mom who disliked him got. They were all wasted. She ended up taking him up to a bedroom, lured him, disrobed him, took pictures of it to appear as if he was nude, trying to pursue the mom. And the whole thing blew up. Like, the whole wedding blew up. But then I thought to myself, well, dude, you just. You dodged a bullet, bro, because you were never.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yeah, the mom that hates you want to marry into.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, no, the mom that hates you is never going to. You're never going to next level.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Crazy.

[Brian Green]

Did you grow up? I read, in an extraordinarily conservative household. Yes.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Deeply conservative, Southern Baptist, evangelical. You know, the whole nine yards.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. I think this is important to talk about during. During Pride Month. Too. So tell me, I mean, do you have a relationship with your parents now? I'm sorry, I don't know if you're still here.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yeah, no, I do. I mean, my dad is dead, but my mom and I are on, you know, about as good terms as we could be, considering our differences. I was emancipated when I was 17 when they found out I was gay. Didn't talk to them again until I was in college. Reconciled a little bit in college. And then, you know, things have gotten steadily better. I mean, right before my dad passed, we were in the best place that we'd ever been in as father and son, I think, for my entire life. So I'm really grateful that I had that time with him before he passed. And, you know, my mom and I are, you know, good. I think, you know, she's not coming to my wedding. She's not supportive of that part of my life. But the fact is, is that it doesn't bum me out. It doesn't make me sad. I barely think about it because quite honestly, I stopped expecting certain things from my family a long time ago, over a decade ago. You know, half my life, I've lived half my life not living for my parents or family's approval or caring about my family's approval. I haven't taken a dime from my family since I was 17. And that has become cornerstone of my personality. Because everything I have, my house, my car, my life is because I worked my ass off to get it. And I don't begrudge anybody who has a great relationship with their family and does receive support in some way like, you know. But I think that I'm really grateful that I am not a 35 year old who's still living, desperately trying to get the approval of their parents. Because I know a lot of people like that. And it's torture.

[Brian Green]

I didn't always see two totally different situations. I'm not stepping in your shoes, but I didn't always see eye to eye with my father, had a rough relationship with my mother. My, you know, my, my childhood was, I guess it's all about perspective. But I read this from. I think it was Ram Dass said this. I read a book that he had written and one of the. In my early 20s, one of the things that he had said is that one of the most important steps that a human being can take is to realize that your mom and dad are just words. They are human beings with their own thoughts and perspectives and they don't have to align with yours. And you don't have to have their acceptance and they don't need to be a part of your life if that doesn't align with who you are or who you want to go. It was like reading the Emancipation Proclamation. It disconnected the word mom and dad from my. From all these expectations that I had of them that may or may not have ever come true. And that really sweetened the relationship with them because I was like, they're just human and they can be assholes and they can have opinions that don't share mine. They don't have to be these here heroes in my story that are never going to show up. And so I relate with what you're saying is that you can still have a good relationship with them, but they may not be everything all the time.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yeah. And you find the family that can fill in the gaps. Right. And that's what I've done is I've surrounded myself with plenty of people who provide the kind of emotional and familial support that a lot of people get from their families. And I just, you know, had to do a little digging and find it myself.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. So you say you're unemployed, but you're really. You're just in between jobs, I would imagine, because Fire island loot. Love Hotel. Okay, let's start with Love Hotel.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Big mouth.

[Brian Green]

Oh, and big mouth.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Fan of big mouth.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Oh, thank you so much.

[Brian Green]

What a wild show that is. By the way, the first time I watched it, I was like, this is incredible.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

So, yeah, Love Hotel. Tell us. I'm a big housewife fan. Brian is not.

[Joel Kim Booster]

But I, of course, I also live in a mixed household. So, yeah, okay. It is difficult. Love Hotel. I mean, the premise is pretty simple, and it's a pretty. It's a million dollar idea. You take four housewives, you put them in a resort with waves and waves of eligible bachelors, and you sort of just let them loose and see, you know, if any love connections are made. And I was the host of the show. I was the love concierge, which is the title that they gave me, which.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Did a great job.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Meaningless. Thank you. And yeah, it was really crazy. Cause I'm also a huge Bravo fan. And so it definitely felt a little bit like I was stepping into the Star wars immersive hotel. You know, like, I was just like LARPing as a Bravo in the Bravo land. And yeah, it was definitely a learning experience. I'd never really done. Like, I'd never hosted before or anything like that. So I was learning on the job for most of it. And, you know, it's a saying of, like, you're used to seeing these women through the safety of your. Through, you know, your television, and then you're up close and personal, and it is a much different beast to sort of be wrangling them yourself.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

So funny. Who were some of the couples that you were most surprised by? Like, I think I have to say, maybe Luann and James. I didn't expect to make it.

[Joel Kim Booster]

I knew. I think on first glance, I think we were all a little surprised by it, but. But, you know, the more I got to know Lou and the more certainly I got to know James, I think it makes quite a bit of sense because I think, you know, he worships her, and I think that is a huge plus for Luann. I think, like, the. You know, she's been burned in the past. She's been burned in the past by guys who don't worship her. And so I think, you know, he's a goof. He's definitely takes a while to settle into him. But I completely understand sort of why. Why they work, because they are both goofs. They're both, like, they love to, you know, joke around. And he makes her laugh, which I think is, like, the big thing is, I think, like, most people don't realize how important that aspect of things is until you have it. And so, yeah, you know, it's listen and listen. The woman is a professional reality star. They're still seeing each other, but, you know, she has admirers in lots of different places around the world. And. And the thing is, is I think it works is it still works for them, you know, and so I think her life is so unorthodox that, like, of course she would have an unorthodox relationship. So I am happy that she left the Love Hotel with someone that she's still in contact with, which is unfortunately not the case with all of them. Right.

[Brian Green]

Do you. Is it wild stepping into, like, the Bravo verse? Do people. Is it, like, a whole new set of human beings that recognize who you are?

[Joel Kim Booster]

And, yeah, I mean, I have been tangentially involved in the Bravo verse for a while because I've appeared on Watch what Happens Live many times that people know I'm a super fan, so it wasn't, like, a huge leap, but it definitely. Yeah, the Bravo fans are scary. Bravo fans are loud, and Bravo fans are not afraid to send you a death threat. I will tell you, I've had my DMs. It's interesting. I've learned so many new slurs that I did not know existed for Asian people. Things, you know, retro slurs that they're bringing back. But, you know, it's also been very. It's also been positive as well. But it's just so easy. Cause the crazies are the loudest ones.

[Brian Green]

But why are they angry with the host?

[Joel Kim Booster]

Well, there's. Listen, if. You know, you know. But I think also, I don't think there's a division amongst people who think I was a good host and who think I was a bad host. So I think that's a big part of it. I think that, you know, and I'll admit, like, I was learning how to do the job on the job, you know, And I think I definitely got better and settled in, but there's a lot going on. There's someone in my ear telling me what to say. There's writers who have written clever puns for me to deliver and, you know, just a little bit of space for me to be me and inject myself into it. And so I think I learned how to do the balance a little bit better by the end of the show. Cause I was able to be a little bit more myself by the end. But at the beginning, I was definitely in this mode of, like, okay, they've given me what to say. They're in my ear, directing me how to say it, and I'm just gonna do that. And then, you know, I think as they trusted me more and as I got to know them more, they were more willing to, like, let me be me.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Well, I loved. I think you did a fantastic job, and I loved your outfits.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Thank you.

[Brian Green]

Thank you.

[Joel Kim Booster]

That was stressful. I had three days. They gave me three days before I had to leave to figure out my wardrobe. And I wish I had a little bit more time. I'll tell you that. I was not a fan of everything I wore, but we made it work.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah, it looked great.

[Brian Green]

Wait, so hold on. So you get a phone call and three days later they want you, like, filming?

[Joel Kim Booster]

No, I get a phone call, and it was. I had maybe a week or two, a week and a half lead. And then I sort of assumed that there would have. They would have a wardrobe department there. You would make that assumption, providing me with clothes. But, you know, it's the first season, and I think it is. You know, they were. They needed. That resort was not cheap. They needed to spend the budget in other, bigger ways to make the show look fucking beautiful, by the way. I think it looks gorgeous. But, yeah, I really scrambled and pulled Together, everything I could find that was and might work for the show. There are some misses, I will say, after watching it back, but I think considering the time frame I had, the limited resources I had, I'm pretty happy with how I dressed on that show.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, yeah.

[Brian Green]

I think it looked white T shirt, dark pants. Joel, just go the commercial breakway and just wear the same thing. I forgot who said it. David Byrne said, keep on wearing the same thing, people start to recognize you. It is beautiful, though, by the way, that resort. Gorgeous.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

I mean, did you get to you. I'm. You're staying in the resort, Right.

[Joel Kim Booster]

We were there for three and a half weeks. Stayed there the entire time. And I will say it was gorgeous. I have nothing negative to say about it, except I think any resort, if you're there for three and a half weeks, it's gonna gets old.

[Brian Green]

It gets old.

[Joel Kim Booster]

It's gonna drive you a little crazy by the end of it, for sure.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, yeah, I. I hear you. It's usually, give anybody four walls and let them live inside it for a while, and pretty soon those four walls are gonna start to look plain. Jane. So tell us, I am a fan of. How'd you get involved in. Yeah. How did you get involved with Lute?

[Joel Kim Booster]

You know, it's a really funny story, and I love to tell it, too, because it's such a great instructive sort of lesson for people who are struggling. Because what happened was, is I was on an NBC sitcom called Sunnyside back in 2019. It has the distinction of being the lowest rated premiere in NBC history. Oh, it was pulled off the air after three episodes, which they had not done in about eight years.

[Brian Green]

You said three episodes?

[Joel Kim Booster]

Three, yeah. Three episodes. And this was well past the point when networks were pulling shows off the air early. They just weren't doing that anymore. But they made an exception for our show.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

How sweet of them.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yeah. And, you know, it was a moment in my life where I was like, wow, I just failed hard. This is humiliating. And my career's over, Over. I don't know, like, what I'm gonna do. And it was for a long time, for two years, like, sort of this thing that hung over me where I was like, I failed so hard. I don't know what I'm gonna do. And so depressed. And then right as we were coming out of the pandemic, I got an email from my manager about Lute and Matt Hubbard, who co created Lute, was a writer on Sunnyside and loved working with me so much on that show. That he created the part of Nicholas with me in mind. And so I still audition, but it was definitely one of those situations where all I had to do was not fuck it up and they wanted me. And so, you know, it's. I always tell people, you don't know how the story ends, you know, in the moment. You have to really give yourself some distance from it to see what the arc of this story is. And for me, it was a happy ending. And, you know, it's just funny. It goes to show that, like, the things that feel like failures and the end of the world in the moment can lead to. To, you know, bigger and better things down the road.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

So true.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, I think that's a real. I think that's very instructive that sometimes failures are actually validations and waiting. Right. And you never know who's watching. So I think the other important thing, I was saying this to someone who wanted to start a podcast and I said, listen, consistency, stick with it. It's going to feel like failure over and over and over again. And maybe in the end it is, but at the very least, you did it like you gave it a shot. And you never know what's right around the corner.

[Joel Kim Booster]

And life is, don't make the call in the moment.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, never make the call in the moment.

[Joel Kim Booster]

I think this is a piece of advice that I actually got when I was doing stand up too, is that like so many people, something happens to them and they want to rush to the stage and tell the story about it. But so often it's such a smart idea to sort of give it some time because again, you don't know what the shape of the story is until you're out of it. And I think so many people make the mistake of whether it is as a performance or just in a moment where they failed, they wanna tell themselves that this is the end of the story and they had no idea. It's just. Yeah, it's a mistake I think a lot of people make.

[Brian Green]

Are you still doing standup? Actively working standup?

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yeah, I finished a tour in February. Still going up around town as much as possible, shopping it around. Hopefully we'll be, you know, shooting it soon as my next special. And, you know, it is getting more difficult, I will say, I think the busier I get. It's this weird, like, joke about stand up is that, you know, you get so successful as a stand up comic and then they start asking you to do everything but stand up, which, you know, I've always been someone I've Always wanted to be a writer. I, you know, studied playwriting. That was always, the goal was write for tv. And acting was always sort of like a pipe dream that I had that I cared about, but never thought. I thought like the best I could hope for is to be a writer in a writer's room. And that was sort of. That was the big impossible dream. You know, like, I never thought I'd make a movie. I never certainly thought I'd make a movie that I starred in or produced. And you know, standup was just easy because there was no barrier to entry, to get into it, you know, and it was an easy creative outlet that felt really fulfilling. And then slowly it became the most interesting creative outlet that I was, that I had in my life. So I just decided to, you know, pull the trigger and do it as, you know, my main thing. And, and it's funny that, like, as soon as I got successful as a stand up, everything circled back around and suddenly people wanted me to act and people wanted me to write. And. And so again, it's that thing of like, you don't know how this. The arc of the story until you're. You're out of it.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. And we hear this from a lot of comics too. I mean, you know, there's standup comics that are on the road constantly. They're working on the next hour. Working on the next hour. But we've heard from other. Com have broken through just the journeyman kind of comic thing is that they get so busy, it becomes. And then you have to create the next hour. But when do you create the next hour? When you're touring the same hour. It's kind of this. It's a vicious cycle. It's, you know, a razor, so to speak. You've got to do it over and over again. You.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

But a good problem to have.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. I mean, listen, are you going to complain about being busy? Fire Island.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Mm.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Love Fire Island. Oh, my God. I think it came out in 2022, right?

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yes, yes. I'm still riding on the fumes of a movie that came out in 2022, but I think I will be for a long time and I'm okay with that.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

And it's kind of a Pride and Prejudice type.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yeah, it's a loose Pride and Prejudice adaptation. Modern day retelling of Pride and Prejudice. In the same vein that, like what. Amy Heckerling with Clueless was a huge inspiration for what I did with Fire Island.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Well, it was such a fun thing. And Margaret Cho, she's been on our show there. I loved her in it as well. So I call it.

[Joel Kim Booster]

I mean, I grew up. I mean, she birthed me in a lot of ways. And so to get her in the movie was just such a surreal moment for me.

[Brian Green]

She named you in our interview as one of the comics that she admired to watch as one of the.

[Joel Kim Booster]

I mean, and when I hear things like that, it's just, it's hard to even absorb or like, it just doesn't seem real because, you know, when you watch somebody, when someone like that who has shaped you and your conception of your own identity and what's possible for yourself says something like that, it just, it's hard for me to absorb sometimes.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I can imagine.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, you, you grow up with your heroes and then your heroes are naming you as people that they're watching as the next generation to be the next heroes that there was. And in Margaret Choir, she breaks through. It's not just, you know, sexually liberal, liberated or whatever classification you want to give her. She breaks through as like a legendary comic. She's just a human comic that defined stand up comedy in a lot of ways for so many people. She is absolutely like, you know, I was taken aback when we had Margaret Cohen on the show because she, for.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Me, was a good stuff. I just did a show with her last week and she still stuff funny, you know, like, it's. And that is not always the case with people who've been doing it for a minute. And so it's, it's always fun to watch her. And she's still, you know, just as good as she was back when I was, you know, listening to her in high school.

[Brian Green]

Do you get the sense that this movie is like, iconic? Like it's becoming like. I mean, I know you don't want to, like, you know, I don't know, cluck to yourself, but.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yeah, I don't know that I would ever feel comfortable, comfortable saying that myself. I think that I hope, you know, it is something that people will return to throughout the years, but I also feel like there's a part of me that's like, God, I hope that by the time, you know, the reason movies like, but I'm a cheerleader are still so iconic is because we haven't gotten one like it since. Not really, you know, certainly not a lot of them. And so it still is so distinct and important and iconic. And my hope is that we won't be looking back in 20 years and saying that Fire island is still the only one that did what Fire island did. I hope that, you know, I hope people. I certainly don't hope that people forget about it, but I hope that there will be so many movies like it, more of that, that it doesn't need to be this singular entity that people return to.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, no, that's interesting. Let me ask you something for those of the listeners that don't know Fire Island. Why is Fire Island. Fire Island? Why is everyone so enamored with Fire Island? The actual Fire Island.

[Joel Kim Booster]

The actual Fire Island. Oh, so Fire island, it is a tiny little strip of land off Long island and Fire island, it's funny, is it's known as, like, a gate vacation destination, but it's actually, if you grew up in Long Island, Fire island is quite large and only two sections of it. Cherry Grove and the Pines are, you know, historically gay enclaves. And it's been around since the early, you know, 20th century. It's always been a safe haven for queer people. It's very difficult to get to. And that's a big part of why it became a safe haven for queer people. And it really was this sort of. Of magical space where, you know, there are no straight people. You can be, you know, you can feel free to be as gay or queer or whatever and surround yourself with gay and queer people. And it's great because, you know, when I first started going, when I was in my early 20s, you step off that boat and onto the island and you spend, like a couple hours there and you realize, like, oh, my God, there's no straight people here. And a weight is kind of lifted from you for a minute because, you know, especially as a visibly gay guy, you know, like, there's no ifs, ands or buts about it. People clock me as gay before I even open my mouth. And there's a lot of pressure when you are in public spaces, places like New York or la, and you're sort of, like, aware that, like, oh, God, like, I have to make sure that I comport myself in a way that maybe isn't flamboyant. And, you know, you know, I don't want the straight people to see me do XYZ and then make assumptions based on all gay people because they had a bad interaction with me. And, like, and you go to Fire island and that all dissipates. You know, there's a sort of different set of insecurities and anxieties that, you know, go hand in hand with that island. But there is something really powerful about being in a space with all queer people and being free of the pressure of like, knowing that. That, you know, everything you do is going to be pathologized to the rest of the queer community by some straight person.

[Brian Green]

That is very interesting, Joel. That. And as a straight man myself, that is a very interesting piece of, like, you just opened yourself up transparently a little bit into the psychology of what I'm sure this. The kind of, like, this invisible stress that. This invisible world that you're kind of dancing between. I used to have an older gay man was my roommate for a year, year and a half, and he used to say to me, it doesn't matter that people around me know that I'm gay. I still don't feel like I'm ever. That pressure to be a little bit straight is ever really off me. And I don't know if I ever understood what he really meant until you kind of said it. It was like, you know, I always. I'm always dancing this line. I always have to think these thoughts. I always have to be sure I'm guarded.

[Joel Kim Booster]

And I think any sort of minority or marginalized person feels that, to some extent, the pressure to be, you know, the best version and not misbehave and not ruin it for the rest of your group. I mean, I'm sure you will feel it as a woman. You know, like, there's this. This idea of, like, I have to be perfect. I have to do this. I have to be, you know, 50,000 things at once. Otherwise they're gonna say women aren't funny, or, like, you know, or they're gonna say it's just, like, you worry and it sucks. Cause then sometimes, like. Like, I do just want to be a gay guy, and I don't want to. And it's like, yeah, I am. I am a stereotype at times, and I enjoy my life, and I am good at it. And I just think it's like, you can get really tangled up in it really quickly. And it's why those brief moments when I get to go to Fire island are so nice, because you're able to let go of a lot of that for a week, and then, you know, slowly get reintroduced to it as you come back to the mainland.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. Did you. You said you started going in your early 20s. Did you identify that you were gay when you were young?

[Joel Kim Booster]

I think I said, I remember when I was four years old, I was, like, having a little sleepover with my brother and my sister in my sister's bedroom. Little sleeping bags on the floor, staring up at her glow in the dark, light, star lights on the ceiling. And telling them that I liked looking at naked boys more than naked girls, and they thought that was a laugh riot. But I was being serious. And I still remember this to this day. And I knew, like, really young that that was the case, and I did. And then I slowly sort of learned that it was wrong by the time I was 13. But I was pretty, like. Yeah. Like, confident in what I liked and what. Who I was at to some extent at a very young age. And then, you know, you learn to suppress.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And so when did you come out?

[Joel Kim Booster]

I came out officially at 16. Yeah.

[Brian Green]

I'm sorry, you said you came out at 16 years old at 16. Yeah. That's. That's. That's pretty young.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yeah. And this was pre Glee, by the way.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Right, right.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Okay. So it was. It was especially brave what I did. Okay. I didn't have Ryan Murphy paving the way for me. Some of these gen zers. Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Well, I think that's. I think that's super brave of you as someone who will never have to be in that position. I can't even imagine. And now I have children of my own, and this conversation goes around with my wife and I a lot. You know. You know, you look at your children and you play the law of averages, and you see behaviors and you see things, and you go, oh. And. And you say to yourself, you know, I only can hope, and I can only pray that we never say or do anything that would make them feel any kind of anxiety about being as honest and as real and as them as they want to be. And, you know, as a parent, you can only hope to be supportive. I realize that I am not that. That I am not. Like, that thought does not carry throughout every single parent in the universe. I wish it did. But it's pretty brave to even be 16 years old and come out like that.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yeah. I mean, definitely. It is. I think even today, to be 16 and come out, you know, I made the, you know, post Glee, even. It's a scary thing to do, but. And it's all dependent on your context, too. But I think, like, a big thing for me was that, like, I've been getting called a faggot since I was, like, 8 or 9 years old, you know, Like, I am not somebody who can hide who I am. And I think, like, everyone has always been, you know, telling me. Was telling me that I was gay my entire life. Calling me gay my entire life. And so you hit 16 at a certain point, and you. In the calculus, in my mind was sort of like, well, either Way, even if I pretend to be straight, people are still gonna clock me as gay and bully me for being gay. So you know what? I might as well just be fucking gay.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Fuck it.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yeah, it was just like, either way, I'm gonna receive this. This treatment from my peers. And honestly, after I came out, it was, like, easier almost. I think, like, there was just this, like, you know, like. Because when. When kids, I think teenagers especially target someone who's closeted, who's, like, very clearly, you know, reads as gay, can't hide it, is not doing a great job of hiding it, whatever, what have you. When they finally own it and come out, it, like, sort of deflates a lot of the joy that bullies get from, you know, trying to, you know, tell people that you're gay. Because it's like, oh, now he's kind of beaten us to the punch, and it's not as fun anymore when we thought he was just an effeminate straight kid who we could torture. So.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, no, that's very interesting. Yeah. It's like, almost like there's the pleasure in trying to poke at something that you're trying to hide, but when I'm not trying to hide it, it just deflates the situation a little bit. It's like, oh, okay, well, he's gay.

[Joel Kim Booster]

It's like, yeah, no shit, I'm gay.

[Brian Green]

Congratulations.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, I figured it out at 4. It only took you however long to figure it out. Will there be Love Hotel Season 2?

[Joel Kim Booster]

I don't know yet. I think there's a lot of rumors. There's a lot of speculation about, you know, what the format will be, things like that. I think they were really happy with the show, and I think that it was. Was a hit for them, and people seem to enjoy it, and it'll be. And I think it's a great format for the network, too, because it's one of the best parts was to get to see these four housewives from disparate franchises sort of be in a space together. And then, you know, there's Ultimate Girls Trip that they experimented with as well. But this format, I think, is a little bit better, because the problem with Ultimate Girls Trip was that when it ended, because they're just on vacation, there was no storylines, there was no arc, really to it. It's just sort of like. And death going home. But with this, there's, like, an intrinsic sort of structure that lends itself to a beginning, middle, end. You know, like, there is a climax on this show that I think is really satisfying for A lot of people. So you get to see these ladies play who aren't normally on shows together. And you also get like a satisfying build up to an ending. And I think that is really great. And I think that's one of the joys of the first season of Love Hotel, at least, is that you see these four women who are normally in conflict with, if not each other, then other women on their franchises really just be friends and support each other. And like, you know, it was girl Code down the entire time they shot together. And that's a nice change, I think, of pace for people who watch these shows.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, that's like a formula that Bravo doesn't. I mean, maybe they do on other shows, but these women that you're used to seeing in conflict with each other, all of a sudden the through line is not conflict with each other, but support each other to try and find some other outcome that's positive for everybody.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

For women that are in their, you know, 40s, 50s.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Listen, I say this all the time and it's like, you know, it's maybe a little tongue in cheek, but it's. It's actually kind of real, is that I always tell people, if you want to see women 50 plus on television live, you know, complicated, layered stories, then unfortunately, Housewives is one of your only options. Because we do not see women in their 50s or beyond on television a lot. Certainly not centered as the main focus of the show. And so say what you will, you know, think it's trash, it is. But it is also like, I think, like a really fascinating look at these women who are, for a lot of people, invisible once they reach a certain age. And so to give them back this agency and to give them to center their stories, I think is, you know, you don't have to like it, but I think it's sort of silly to deny that it's. It's a little. Important's not the word, but. Well, yeah, I guess important is it because, you know, it's a mega. Women of that age deserve it.

[Brian Green]

You know, it's a mega hit. These shows are mega hits. They are super successful. They breed rabid fan bases. People live inside of these stories, you know, they die for the next episode. They, you know, you don't. And maybe not everybody likes it. I'm a huge fan of trash tv. I love trash tv. Just not, you know, that channel's not my channel.

[Joel Kim Booster]

We only have so much bandwidth. We only have so much bandwidth.

[Brian Green]

They don't want me. They don't exactly. Yours is tlc, mine's tlc, which is trashier than any trash. But at the end of the day, these are mega hits. And there's a reason why, and I think that, you know, you might have hit on something, is because so many people, they see little bits of themselves in these lives that these other. That these ladies are, are living and they say, oh, well, you know, I can identify with that. It's an exaggerated version, but good television is an exaggerated version of ourselves.

[Joel Kim Booster]

It's the only sort of corner of Hollywood that takes women in their 50s seriously in a lot of ways. You know, like, I think so many actresses age into this age range and then are sort of discarded because their, their value is so tied up in how fuckable they are to a lot of these studios, you know, and then they're just sort of abandoned. And I think, you know, it serves a really important purpose in the ecosystem of reality TV&T in general, I think.

[Brian Green]

And without them, we wouldn't have so much Andy Cohen. And you know what? I could take all that guy you can get. I love that guy. I do.

[Joel Kim Booster]

I mean, it's, it permeates the culture. I. So many people who don't even watch Housewives, they know about the table flip.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Exactly.

[Joel Kim Booster]

You know, they know about who going to check me, boo. They know about who said that. They, they know all the quotes, they know all the moments. So whether you like it or not, unfortunately, it is a cultural juggernaut, whether you think that's merited or not.

[Brian Green]

Do you know, Joe, do you know why I got turned off to the Real Housewives? You know, the Real Housewives of Atlanta? Oh my gosh. We have to watch, because that's where we're at. We have to watch in Atlanta. Then I got to know some of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, some of the early Real Housewives of Atlanta ladies. And I just was like, this doesn't like, it's not adding. What I'm seeing on TV is not adding up what I understand about their real life. And I also understand I'm not dumb enough.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

It's an exaggerated.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, it's an exaggerated version. I'm not dumb enough. But then it, like, then it just kind of turned me off. I was like, ah, whatever. But for. That's what TV is like. It's a dramatized version of reality. Right.

[Joel Kim Booster]

I, I think it is a mistake to approach any Housewives franchise as though it is a docu series.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Joel Kim Booster]

It is a lightly scripted reality experiment. And I think that it's so funny, because a lot of people love to say things like, oh, they're not really friends. They're not friends in real life. This is so manufactured. This is so fake. And I'm like, yeah, I don't care.

[Brian Green]

Exactly.

[Joel Kim Booster]

They are co workers. They clock into the drama factory. And like, yes, of course you're friends with people at work that you aren't normally friends with in real life.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Joel Kim Booster]

And that's a real dynamic in and of itself. And it doesn't make it less. It doesn't make it any more fake. You know, it's just. It's like, yeah, when you work at Quiznos, you wouldn't necessarily fuck with Lisa outside of Quiznos, but you're. You know, you're mad at Daniel, so you're gonna align yourself with Lisa at Kiznos. You know, that is, like, that is how people operate at work. You know, you make alliances with people that you are not actually friends with to make it through. You know? And I think if you frame it that way, that's how I watch these shows, is that they are workplace dramedies about people who are working as real housewives. And I think if you. I think some people expect too much.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Out of the reality portion, you know.

[Brian Green]

And that's crazy, because I was watching whatever. I don't know, whatever Instagram account, and there were people that were following around some of the 90 Day Fiance people, and they were watching as over and over and over again, the film crew kept filming the people coming down the escalator at the airport for the, like, you know, oh, my gosh, they're here from whatever far flung country, you know, oh, you're here. Here's my sign and my flowers, and I love you, and it's been 10 months since I've seen you. And the film crew just kept filming it over, like, 10 different times to get the reaction that they wanted or so that they could edit it in the way that they wanted to edit it. But I know that, and I don't care, because if I watch 90 Day Fiance, I'm not watching because I think it's absolutely real. I'm watching because it's edited to be interesting and entertainment. That's right.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

So before you go, talk a little.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Bit about Big Mouth. Cause I swear this is, like, one of my husband and I's favorite shows. Did you work? You're a writer?

[Joel Kim Booster]

You know, I was a writer. I wrote on three seasons of the show. I wrote between seasons three and six on the show, and it was one of the best jobs. So fun I've ever had. Nick Kroll is an amazing creative mind and boss, and it was just so much fun. It was the most fun I've ever had in a writer's room because we just basically came in every day and relived our childhoods and mined them for, you know, storylines on the show. And it was just, yeah, it's just such a positive environment and we all were there to have fun and really, you know, get to process some of our childhood trauma at the same time.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Right. And for our listeners, it's an animated show on Netflix that is basically, it.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Explores the experience of puberty in a myriad of ways that are sometimes poignant, sometimes gross, sometimes funny. But we tackle pretty much every aspect of adolescence and puberty from as many angles as we could fit into a season.

[Brian Green]

If you don't know big mouth, I don't want to know you. Turn off my podcast. Joel is the host of the Love Hotel Fire island available to stream. Where is it available to stream?

[Joel Kim Booster]

Hulu.

[Brian Green]

Hulu on Hulu, Big Mouth on Netflix, Love Hotel on Peacock, Love Hotel on Peacock, and Loot coming back on Apple, right? Yep, that's right. Joel, you're all over the place. It's a pleasure to have you. I hope you will return to our little podcast here. It's really nice to get to know you a little bit.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Yeah. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Looking forward to seeing what you're up to next. And we'll be listening to your podcast, too.

[Brian Green]

I love it. Yes. Oh, bad dates. That's right, bad dates. Podcast, Podcast. Which is.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Thank you so much.

[Brian Green]

Great links in the show notes. Thanks so much, Joel. We appreciate it.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Thanks, guys.

[Rachel]

Why don't you text us and we can text back and then you can text us and reply, then so on. It's a fun little game I've been playing and I think you'll be great at it. 212-433-3TCB. That's 212-433-30. You could leave a message too. If you do, maybe you'll end up being the voice of the show. But be warned, the pay is not great. You could go to the website and drop us an email. Also tcbpodcast.com and while you're there, you can get a free sticker. Who doesn't want a free sticker? Just go to the contact us button and ask for one. Follow us on Insta at the commercial break and watch the [e-mail] the commercial break. Now I'm gonna go back to that text message game. You want to play? Come on. Bye.

[Brian Green]

Okay, Mr. Joel Kim Booster.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

What a pleasure.

[Brian Green]

Such a nice guy. I really enjoyed our conversation. At least I did not quote Rom Dawson this one. So there you go. I came close. I came close. But I figure, you know, Joel's live probably more life than I have, so I better shut my mouth and let him. Let him do the talking. Yeah, let him do the talking. Anyway, thank you to Joel for coming in. We really enjoyed our conversation. I will put him on the you are welcome back list. What do you think about?

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I think so. He's definitely in that category.

[Brian Green]

All right, stay tuned. This week we have exciting information about the next TCB stunt that Chrissy and I are going to be doing. That includes watching an entire movie and doing the commentary. Breaking it all down live and on the podcast. Stay tuned as TCB introduces yet another dumb idea to you and we'll see if we pull it off. We're going to be doing it here in this studio so I think we can do it. If we were outside the studio then I, I would have questions about our actual ability or willingness to go do it. Also, I wanted to say about a former guest who. And hopefully returning guest, Reggie Watts and his girlfriend Kat. They are putting together a live late night show.

[Joel Kim Booster]

Oh.

[Brian Green]

With. With some really heavy hitting celebrity comedians that are coming on. Kat is helping produce it. Reggie's gonna be doing it. It's July 23rd. I'll be talking more about that later on this week and maybe, maybe fingers crossed, we'll get of rid Reggie in just for a few minutes and or cat so that they can have a conversation with us about it. And I'll tell you where you can stream it live. I think there are limited tickets available. I think that's in Los Angeles. But hopefully this becomes a thing like a thing that they do.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I agree.

[Brian Green]

But I can't wait to see this because I think I told Reggie you would be the perfect late night host.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I think you did the first time we talked to him.

[Brian Green]

Yes, he stole my idea and then didn't invite me to be on. But I wouldn't invite me to be on either. If I had a list of people, Brian would not be at the top of it either. Okay, so all of Joel Kim Booster's shit is down here in the show notes. Just open up your little podcast player, take a look all the links right there for you at the commercial break on Instagram. 212-4383 TCB questions, comments concerns content ideas in tcbpodcast.com audio, video and your free sticker. Okay, Chrissy, that's all I can do for today?

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I think so.

[Brian Green]

But I'll tell you that I love you.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

And I love you.

[Brian Green]

I'll say best to you, best to you out there in the podcast universe. Until next time, Chrissy and I will say, we do say, and we must say goodbye.