TOM SCHARPLING Interview: Part 2

Hey everyone, this is the second half of our interview with Tom Scharpling. So, if you didn’t read Part One, go back and read it first! You can find it here.

Whenever the topic of comedians or actors who have taken interesting turns later on in their careers comes up, I think about people like Victoria Jackson. As a little girl, I just loved her comedy, but now as an adult, when I see her scary, right-wing blog, I feel totally betrayed and am mortified that I was ever a fan of her.

You know what I will say for Victoria Jackson? She is a horrible monster, and has proven that she has barely any talent, and she has managed to hoodwink people.

But don’t forget about her “Flipped over you” song, where she actually does a real flip.

It was cute. But what are you going to do with that?

Eight year old girls love it.

Yeah, it’s like she was in the Devil’s lair when she was on that thing [SNL]. It’s like, “you’re lucky they had you”. There are too many people wishing death on other people. I hate that. But you know what? In the case of Victoria Jackson, I don’t wish she would drop dead, I just wish they could put her on the moon. She could live a full life, but we will never hear of her moronic views. It’s just these weird cries for attention, but nobody cares what she does anymore. It’s like, if you were so moral, what were you doing working on Saturday Night Live? What, you didn’t hear what Saturday Night Live was about? No. You knew what the deal was. If anybody should be ashamed of themselves, it should be her, for being a complete hypocrite and trading in the values that she believes in so much for the paycheque of Saturday Night Live. Making a deal with the devil.

New Jersey is a state that has a lot of famous people associated with it. Who do you think is the most embarrassing celebrity to come out of New Jersey?

It’s hard to say. Are there people that come to mind for you?

Maybe... Kevin Smith?

You know, with Kevin Smith, I give this guy all the credit in the world. He is the first one to admit that he is not Orson Welles. And he gets by on hard work, and he found his audience, and he works hard to hold onto his audience, and it just has not ever been my thing. I’ve goofed on his thing enough, and personally I don’t feel it’s my version of New Jersey. It’s his version of New Jersey. He grew up forty-five minutes from where I am, but I see things in a completely different way. But, you know, it isn’t my thing. His movies aren’t for me personally. I know enough people who love him...

Look, Kevin Smith hated the movie Magnolia so much. That’s like my favourite movie! It’s clear he has the things he doesn’t like. And he knows what its like being a fan of things and not being a fan of things, so it’s like, I would say, I‘m not embarrassed at all that he’s from the state. He just does something different than what I would do. I’m not embarrassed at all. I give him a ton of credit. What he achieved, anybody would be proud of. It’s just not for me. At a point, you have fun teasing and goofing, but its like, I don’t hate him at all. His stuff just does not speak to me. The people I’m more embarrassed of from the state, would be just the trash from like, Jersey Shore, who most of them aren’t from here. For people like that, who come here, and act like that, and just lower the quality... That’s not what the boardwalk is like. It’s not like that. It’s just such a small segment of it, and just this glorification of that is always a bummer to me. That, to me, is the low point of New Jersey. That and, you know, we can’t seem to get a decent governor. Just things like that. But you know, Kevin Smith, he’s okay. I just don’t watch his movies.

Whenever your show has a topic like the Hate Pit, I always want to call in and put David Duchovny in my Hate Pit. I have my own reasons for disliking David Duchovny’s body of work, but I was wondering what you thought of him.

I don’t know. I was never a big X- Files person, and my wife watched it and loved it. He’s one of those guys. I think he’s as good or as bad as the thing he’s in. Like, when he was on Larry Sanders, playing himself, he was great because that show was great. As for that other show he’s got now [Californication], which creeps me out, he creeps me out because the show creeps me out.

I know! And he has these self-indulgent projects like House of D, where he’s written it, directed it, and starred in it, clearly playing an idealized version of himself, where even as a child, he can see through the bigotry of adults, befriending disabled janitors and misunderstood African American, female inmates. Just sort of this awful, self-indulgent work.

You know, it’s so hard, because it’s like, I can’t blame the guy for trying. If he’s going to have the opportunities to try things, he’s gonna’ try them. Sometimes you don’t know if you’re a genius or not until you try things. You know, maybe now he’s like: “I’m a pretty good actor who people seem to like. Maybe I’ll stick to that stuff. You know, George Clooney seems to be a little bit better at the directing and writing and starring in parts. He seems to be a little bit better than I am.” But again, I do not begrudge people for working or taking the opportunities that they do. Sometimes, it’s just like, “Oh brother,” and it comes out not so good.

One of my favourite Best Show episodes was when you read aloud from the article “Cool and the Gang,” from Stephen King’s column, The King of Pop, where he took it upon himself to teach the world about what was cool. Do you ever wonder if it is possible that you could get that out of touch with popular culture, and the world in general?

Oh yeah. I’m sure it could. It’s just part of being old, and look, I think Stephen King also has the advantage of being richer than GOD. And in a weird way, I think you almost have to give the guy credit for even being remotely in touch. He’s at least more in touch than you think he’d be. But the thing that ruins it is he brags about how he has the ultimate handle on things. If he just said, “Here are some things I like in 2008 or 2009” and you’d be like, “Oh wow, he knows bands that are kind of off the beaten track. Good for him. That’s kind of impressive.” But the fact that he’s like, “Check it out, I’m going to tell you how it is.” It’s like, well, no, you don’t know how it is. That’s what does it. He acts like he’s an expert. He’s a crazy old man that is up in Maine. He’s just a kook. I have no problem with kooks. I do have a problem with anybody who is not that cool telling me that they know how it is.

You interviewed Vancouver’s Nardwuar the Human Serviette on the Best Show this year. What did you think about Nardwuar?

From Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada?

Yes!

That’s what he says at the beginning of everything. I think he’s awesome. He’s so wholesome, and so enthusiastic. There’s something about a guy who’s trying to create such a good experience for the people he’s interviewing. That’s so awesome. Just to do this thing that is special, trying to stand out from the pack and really make people feel special. It’s just a really awesome thing. And you know, he’s got pretty substantial cred, also, with [his band] the Evaporators. I love Nardwuar.

In the past, you have expressed your distaste over television shows being adapted to films and trading in their format for a quest-style storyline, like the Ali G movie. If you had to adapt The Best Show into a quest-style movie script, what kind of story line would you choose for the Best Show movie?

Oh, my. That’s a pretty big question. The Best Show movie? You know, one thing that is always boring to me is watching video of people doing radio shows. Like when Howard Stern did that, it was always boring to me. Or when Imus does it, and you’re watching people sitting and talking. Radio demands something different than in TV or movies. I don’t know, maybe the movie would be about the struggle it took to get the show on the air, and just showing from people hating the show to, you know, people slowly warming up to the show. I think there is a lot of stuff with the show that people don’t know about, in terms of the struggle it took for me to get it to that point. There’s a lot of work that goes into it. I still don’t know if that makes a good movie. Maybe the movie would be me and Mike driving around solving crimes. That might be a little bit more watchable.

For more Scharpling, make full use of the Best Show archives and the podcast (both of which you can get to from here: Link!). You can also find a link on that page to the main WFMU page where you can listen to The Best Show live every Tuesday from 8pm to 11pm EST (5pm to 8pm PST).