Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Yeah, let's say I'm only referencing Pachinko because I have to read it.

The meeting is the first meeting is May 12th, which is two, two and a half weeks from now.

And I'm expected to read the 800 page monster brick that is Pachinko within that time period.

I was foisted with this, you know, invitation to join this Asian book club, which I thought was a great idea would be a great idea.

But guess what? The meeting is the first meeting is May 12th, which is two, two and a half weeks from now.

And I'm expected to read the 800 page monster brick that is Pachinko within that time period.

I had never seen anything like it and I didn't it it sort of you know as a as a kid I was very imaginative.

I had never seen anything like it...and I didn't it it sort of you know as a as a kid I was very imaginative. I I I would I could really keep myself entertained for hours and hours just playing by myself Creating words, I'm fine We know But I had no I didn't really know much about the fantasy genre

I had never seen anything like it...I had never seen anything like it and I didn't it it sort of you know as a as a kid I was very imaginative. I I I would I could really keep myself entertained for hours and hours just playing by myself Creating words, I'm fine We know But I had no I didn't really know much about the fantasy genre Like I feel like I read or had read to me the one of the books of the Chronicles of Narnia or something and loved it, but it wasn't it was not a facet of my Passion that it was that facet was was asleep.

Went back read The Hobbit in its entirety Read the books read the Lord of the Rings books.

I went back read The Hobbit in its entirety Read the books read the Lord of the Rings books. Like I I just really was like, oh my god. There's this whole There's this whole world that was just created and you in that you don't have to like You can I can like live in that world.

I don't think so Galadriel showing up in a Lord of the Rings movie to talk down to those hobbits like they don't know that the ring is Already a big deal

Lord of the Rings you would never read. I would never be on board with Lord of the Rings. Bores me to tears.

They are too long, honey. They're so long there's no reason for a ring. What? Can you believe there's three movies and they're all 18 hours long each?

Could you not learn to condense? That's on you. Like that's on Tolkien.

Lord of the Rings you would never read.

Bores me to tears. Yeah, it's so boring.

And I watched the first movie and I was like this is ridiculous. It's boring.

They are too long, honey. They're so long there's no reason for a ring.

Can you believe there's three movies and they're all 18 hours long each? Could you not learn to condense? That's on you. Like that's on Tolkien.

get that book 'While That Escalated Quickly' because it's out right now.

It's amazing. It's it's it's really... I'll let her tell you what it's all about, but it's so applicable.

I think everyone, especially if you're a listener of this podcast, I would imagine that you're engaged on social media and interested in social justice.

So this is like really something for you. Like I really want everyone to go pick this up and do this.

The Last Culturistas' approval is the new Newberry award.

Seriously an edifying read.

It's amazing. It's it's it's really... I'll let her tell you what it's all about, but it's so applicable. I think everyone, especially if you're a listener of this podcast, I would imagine that you're engaged on social media and interested in social justice.

It's so good and I think that's I think that's what sort of distinguishes the book from other similar works I'll say like the fact that you were just able to turn that sort of mirror back on yourself and be like look like just I think midway through the book you're like look I started out being this sort of like you know Peter I was gonna say like internet obsessed person like you were script seated on certain people trying to get views.

It's so illuminating it's so so so good you should be so proud you should be so happy.

An edifying read.

I love this book so good this is a really good and it's it's funny it's entertaining it's relatable and you will learn a lot especially at the end.

And then now I just thought of one more and that's Jagged Little Pill.

she was intelligent about like her pain because she turns it into something she probably wasn't this girl that was like actually screaming at people and like making a scene she probably and I think she is an interview is like Alanis Morissette is like a pretty seems a pretty introverted quiet yeah but then when you listen to her album you would think oh this person is like angry angry and probably a lot to deal with but then you see interviews with her and it's just like this is very kind of like plaintive she dialed it up she dialed it up yeah yeah hundred percent agree yeah also my mind every day is blown that you ought to know it's about none other than Dave Koye

Jagged Little Pill is like very much I feel like what defined me as a little gay boy because I was like I was angry. But then I was like blissfully unaware. And then I was just like jamming.

Jagged Little Pill... that's so funny... Jagged Little Pill Mike Kelton that yeah this and like that makes so much sense because...

she was intelligent about like her pain because she turns it into something she probably wasn't this girl that was like actually screaming at people and like making a scene she probably and I think she is an interview is like Alanis Morissette is like a pretty seems a pretty introverted quiet yeah...

but then you see interviews with her and it's just like this is very kind of like plaintive she dialed it up she dialed it up yeah yeah hundred percent agree yeah...

Jagged Little Pill is like very much I feel like what defined me as a little gay boy because I was like I was angry.

I don't think Alanis was an angry person. I think she was a smart person.

A smart person writes a song that becomes a number one hit that makes that person feel like the biggest douchebag the rest of their life.

The last book I tried to read was 'A Little Life'.

And it's kind of about like, it's sort of like a coming of age. It doesn't take place in any specific time, but it's about, are they gay? I think it's the 90s. A couple of them are gay.

It's a group of friends and one of them has like sort of like a debilitating chronic pain. And it's just a really emotional book.

And I realized like, as I've gotten older, I've gotten much more sensitive when things affect me. And so like when the book got a little thick, I had to put it away because it was driving me like, I'm very sensitive.

Is it sad that book? So sad.

I'm trying to read right now A Little Life... I'm reading like three pages at a time it's too much nope...

...I pick it up and I get one page in and I'm one page and I said I'm not gonna I was on page 30 I almost had an anxiety attack on the plane I can't I can't I was like I cannot do this I was crying yeah the person next to me was like get it together I like to read end of the world books my sister and I trade end of the world books that's way better that's actually to me than like then like looking into my soul I'd much rather like imagine what I would be like in a in a scary situation than read about what my life is really like okay but in that way you're still confronting something about yourself I think so yeah it's nice yeah that's beautiful Michael I support that

The last book I tried to read was 'A Little Life'.

And it's kind of about like, it's sort of like a coming of age. It doesn't take place in any specific time, but it's about, are they gay? I think it's the 90s. A couple of them are gay.

It's a group of friends and one of them has like sort of like a debilitating chronic pain. And it's just a really emotional book.

And I realized like, as I've gotten older, I've gotten much more sensitive when things affect me. And so like when the book got a little thick, I had to put it away because it was driving me like, I'm very sensitive.

Is it sad that book? So sad. Okay.

I'm trying to read right now...A Little Life

I got it for Ryan...for my partner Ryan for Christmas one year...I was like you you'll like this and he and suddenly he like is like oh great and then suddenly it was on the shelf and I was like did you finish it and he's like no I can't I can't

I pick it up and I get one page in and I'm one page and I said I'm not gonna...I was on page 30...I almost had an anxiety attack on the plane...I can't I can't...I was like I cannot do this...I was crying

Big brother is a reality show maven. I was gonna say big brothers from 1984 George Orwell herself I would be so horny for George

1984 more like 1984 which brings me to my next point. Books are boring.

1984. More like 1984. Which brings me to my next point. Books are boring.

And I was just like literally reading a chapter about how like empathy is the only way forward.

And just- It's usually these broken men.

I will say that book was excellent and I was really happy that I read it and I've been thinking about it a lot because I've been thinking a lot about like the drug culture amongst the gay community.

And I think that was, and I really told you the next day, I was like, I think it's a really good thing that you did that.

I think we're all just trying to be cool and individuals and we're all trying to like be interesting and we're trying to find community within community and we're all out here.

And a lot of what this book talks about is like the way that fashion and politics speak to each other and the way that culture, they say politics flows downriver from culture.

And so there's a whole chapter about, you know, people going to Art Basel in Miami and how that's really more about partying, like exclusively about partying and not really about art.

It's like everything, it's like going to that party, this thing, that, being pictured this way on Instagram, looking this way, wearing these clothes.

And it sounds like a dark book, and in many ways it is, but it was also very illuminating and I think very true.

Yeah, and I really, really love that. I'm going to read that ending, I think forever. I love, he ends on this hopeful note of like, empathy is the only way forward. It's like, it is the thing that like, it makes me think of, sorry, but like, Fleabag, like people are all we've got, like other people are all we've got.

And I don't know, it was just really refreshing almost to feel it put like that and a lot of reading it was very tough, but I recommend it, especially for gay men our age or queer people our age, really, or anybody. It's very good.

I'm reading "Martyr" by Khabib Akbar. So good. You would love it. I think you would really love this book, too.

Actually, you know what? I have that book. They sent it to us, didn't they? Yeah, I think they did. Somebody sent that to us. Somebody said it to me. I was like, who sent me this? And then, like, I let the galley sit on my shelf.

Seth Meyers loves this book. Best five hands down.

And I read it and I was just like, oh, this fucking rules. This is exactly my shit.

You would love it.

And actually kind of on face value, it kind of speaks to Mean Boys a little bit, too, because that book is a lot about how culture, about politics flows downhill from culture, like and just about like interesting things to think about as of late.

We're rebooting Dan Brown book adaptations.

How are you gonna replace Tom Hanks in anything right Tom Hanks?

it's like rebooting this series that no one actually really cares about it just makes no sense to me

They're not doing The Da Vinci Code, but they're doing like the newer books or the prequels

Oh my God, Miss Patrick, how far are you in The Da Vinci Code?

The only good character in that book in my opinion. Yes, that book I'm talking about. The Bible.

Number one best-selling book of all time.

People don't talk about the fact that Bible is that bitch is at all times that girl and that it's rule of culture number 75 The Bible is that all times that girl and I look at the New York Times bestseller list and I think

It's kind of like it's kind of like um the happy birthday of books It really is cuz really really because if you really think about it

If the charts really reflected music happy birthday would always be number one number one It's so facto visa V. Happy birthday is God Yes, absolutely

Exactly. I have to read the Hobbit and jack up to Lord of the Rings.

I've read lord of the rings three times

Those have maps!

And they're not even real, real place, bitch.

the line the witch and the wardrobe would have been another one right Narnia Narnia favourite book in the series

I've never read but I don't think it can possibly be as good as the movie. What? 'The Devil Wears Prada'.

Because you don't have Meryl Streep in the book.

Oh yes. It was, it was. I think that it was like a former like, or she wrote for like some tabloid or like an entertaining and she was in a winter's assistant.

What? The Devil Wears Prada.

Because you don't have Meryl Streep in the book.

I didn't even know The Devil Wears Prada was a book.

And she was and then she came out with this book and it like of course took the world by storm.

My co-creator, Aline Brashmikana, who's brilliant wrote the Devil Wars product.

And those are all things that I could picture. Alina's some of the things Miranda says are like things.

Alina's Alina's I was walking through work today in the lake.

Let's see. By all means move at a glacial pace. You know how it thrills me.

apparently Ozma... is like some princess... and longs... to be... a boy

...when I saw "The Wizard of Oz".

...if you have to tune out now hey look I forgive you.

...I was obsessed with Billy Burke, Glinda.

...and from there I started I rented like "Dinner at Eight" and like got...

What made you want to say that?

What made you say that? Well, the I guess When I saw the Wizard of Oz, okay This is a big one for a lot of people for a lot of people and um, if you have to tune out now

But it was goosebumps. The original goosebumps here. Wow. Mr. Stein. Mr. Stein. Mr. Arlstein.

I never got into the later, he continues to create a... The franchises keep bubbling out. But when I first got into them and I guess maybe it was like the fourth, fifth, sixth grade, I was always a super reader as a kid. I was an only child. We did a lot of road trips for my parents' work and stuff and I could read in the car.

So library books and books, they were always happy to whatever you need. But that was the first thing where I'm like, oh, this is number two. And you go into certain Walden books and they have like one, seven, 10 and 14. But it's like, oh, I've never seen six around.

The idea of ordering online and all that stuff didn't exist. So it was this excitement of like... A collection thing. A collection of like, I want them all. I wanna read them all. I wanna have a bookshelf that shows all the pretty colors of one through 40.

So that prime set of goosebumps was when I became in middle school and high school obsessive about my fandom. Just about, or just about... The completest thing is important here because it's just about filling a set or of just having a thorough breath of everything about this one thing.

into like books at that age it was into the goosebumps the anamorph.

It was goosebumps. The original goosebumps here. Wow.

Mr. Stein. Mr. Arlstein.

I never got into the later, he continues to create a... The franchises keep bubbling out.

But when I first got into them and I guess maybe it was like the fourth, fifth, sixth grade, I was always a super reader as a kid.

Best book in the series for you.

You know what's a good mix of like fun, be treaty, murder mystery and like semi serious book is like Agatha Christie stuff.

I'm reading a lot of Poirot.

Oh, yeah, I still do. Full camp, you know people that are in attack at the Christie are really into Agatha Christie.

You know what's a good mix of like fun, be treaty, murder mystery and like semi serious book is like Agatha Christie stuff.

I'm reading a lot of Poirot.

I didn't read the play only read the book barely read the book and played with a rock.

I was cast in the chorus of Into the Woods, yes, which was behind a scrim the entire time.

Like Titanic is the show you have to see if you're in New York, but Into the Woods a close second absolutely outstanding production.

I do want to stress Into the Woods was fantastic.

It's the Olympics of drag.

...I just wish that more kids had gone to see "Into the Woods" because it was so fucking good.

I'm reading Phoebe Robinson's book right now, 'You Can't Touch My Hair', it's so good and her first, her opening chapter is a love letter to award shows and then but then she sort of turns it around and she's like, but you know what, like the reason I was so obsessed with that is because I wanted to be on that stage and I saw and she was like but like it it never made that was my only like escape into my ego of being like I can be this fabulous person who's on stage and like maybe that was it for me.

The New York Times bestselling author of You Can't Touch My Hair and Other Things I Still Have To Explain.

So when I was writing the book, I was always like, we should like get it to Oprah.

And I was like, LOL, like none of us know her or her people.

And so the book came out and then two days later, my lit agent called me and he was like, so they had to tell you something.

He's like, so Oprah has your book. And I was like, what? And I was like, how does she get it? I'm like, I mean, she's Oprah. She can get whatever she wants.

I'm reading Phoebe Robinson's book right now, You Can't Touch My Hair, it's so good and her first, her opening chapter is a love letter to award shows.

I really wanted to stay true to the book and I also like, you know when I when I was developing the character. I actually was was asking these questions To John through my agents like do they want a Singaporean accent because the Singaporean accent is very different.

Cuz cuz the accent I was going for you know, Oliver's is very much like an outsider in his own family Yeah, and and he is pretentious and wants to convey this image of even more so of a wealth and class that that he doesn't have because he's not as rich as the rest of his family members So I kind of wanted to sort of like posh II Snobby accent.

I think the thing is that the first movie departs pretty far how the first book ends right and Okay that I can't say but what I can say I'm starting to filter like yeah, wow, it's like it's almost like you have an NDA But I think I think the idea is that they're just now going to do What they want with who's available at the time there is to film like once we can film again

Does Crazy Rich Asians count as a book?

And did you read it?

No.

Yeah absolutely, it is a book.

What the fuck, man? Alright, I don't think so, honey. Crazy Rich Asians. Look, I didn't see it, right? But I know Crazy Rich Asians, alright? I live near Delhi City.

I know it's important to have these movies because it's Asian people's time. It's your time, look, half your time.

But you know the thing that got me about the movie was that they had the old controversy that there were no brown Asians in the movie.

Yeah, let's get some crazy brown rich Asians.

So what happened was Tony Kushner...And if you don't know Tony Kushner, Tony Kushner is the Pulitzer winning anyone winning? I mean, he's one. He's huge. He wrote agent America Abraham, I mean Lincoln a recovery.

So he literally just went to my website...Tony Kushner went to my website was like hey be in my show. Will you? Be Belize which is like a Lee. It's incredible role.

It's only where we make oh, I actually really love things. I'm really familiar with angels Who do you play it? I'm like the only black person in this office.

It's a it's interesting because I hadn't I actually realized I hadn't seen it because I didn't see the recent Broadway version with Andrew Garfield.

You are not Angels in America and JK Rowling, you are not Tony Kushner.

Broadway, broad, a two-part play like your fucking Angels in America, you are not Angels in America, and J.K. Rowling, you are not Tony Kushner.

I think just Emma and Pride and Prege and Sense and Sense of Belle.

I think just Emma and Pride and Prege and Sense and Sense of Belle.