BFG Podcast #095: ‘History of the World Part 2’ and Steven Marche

Host Neal Pollack succeeds in feeling like a failure on this week’s show. He welcomes in the pride of Ontario, Canada, Steven Marche, to talk about Steven’s new book ‘On Writing and Failure.’ Hear Steven talk about the poverty-stricken Herman Melville! And how James Joyce wasn’t good enough to teach English in Italy! Listen to Neal complain about how no one loves him anymore. Neal continues to take issue with Steven’s statement that he would still complain if he’d made $100 million as a writer. Not likely. But what a treat it is to hear a couple of bitter literary relative successes talk shop.

Then it’s time for a long dessert as Neal welcomes Rob Kutner and Paula Shaffer to listen to him rant endlessly about Mel Brooks’s History of the World Part 2, now streaming on Hulu. It’s very clear that History of the World Part 2 means more to Neal than it does to any human on Earth. So if you want to listen to an in-depth analysis of the joke construction that basically ends up with Judas peeing on Jesus’s feet, you need to go no further. This show is the final word, as it is about everything.

Enjoy!

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