Ezra Fox on Protecting the World from Bad Literature
Read it and Weep is a popular opinion podcast designed to offer readers and film & TV enthusiasts reviews on what one might consider bad literature or appalling television and film. Lead host Alex Falcone produces the podcast with panelists Ezra Fox and Chris Smith. Each week features guest comedians such as Allison Fields, Sarah Hatheway, and Avery Monsen. They have touched on topics such as Gilmore Girls, Atlas Shrugged: The Movie, The Secret, and America’s beloved, Fifty Shades of Grey. They even have an episode poking fun of their own podcast. The show has the feel of popular shock-jock shows like Howard Stern or Bob and Tom, full of laughs and cheesy book and film quotes. On the book, Live Free or Die, Ezra Fox remarks, “If those were my two choices, I pretty much know which I’ll be going with.” Check out this interview with panelist Ezra Fox!
J. Scott Bugher: Mr. Ezra Fox, what’s going on?
Ezra Fox: Just enjoying the view. Thanks for agreeing to meet on top of the Seattle Space Needle. It’s pretty romantic.
JSB: I heard your working on a book. How’s that treating you?
EF: It’s a weird ride. It’s gone on long enough that I’ve kind of expected it to finish itself, and I’m a little annoyed that it hasn’t. I’m actually working on another non-fiction book based on my adventures in Malaysia which is proving to be much more manageable. There are motorcycles and death fruits, which is always a good sign.
JSB: When you’re not writing, you contribute to a podcast called Read it and Weep. I understand the objective is to critique and discuss bad books, film and television. What’s that all about?
EF: It’s all my buddy Alex Falcone’s fault. Almost 4 years ago he wanted to read Twilight so he could make fun of it while doing improv. He roped myself and our friend Chris into it and that was 191 episodes ago. Easily the best/worst decision we ever made. There’s a lot of pain in just getting through pretty insane stuff like Sarah Palin’s autobiography, but the discussions afterwards are funny enough to make it all worthwhile. Almost.
And it’s a great service for anyone who wants to know why something like Twilight’s bad, but doesn’t want to have to suffer through it themselves.
JSB: Give me an example of a bad film. How about a bad Nicolas Cage film. What would you have to say about Face Off? I’m guessing you might agree the film’s pretty bad.
EF: We did a great episode on Death Bed: The Bed that Eats, and yes, it was as advertised. Nicolas Cage movies are incredible, because they go from good-bad like National Treasure 2 (Kidnaps the president!) to bad-bad, like Knowing (I have no idea what happened!). I’m trying to find a correlation between Nic Cage-hair length and movie quality, but it’s a mess.
Face Off I actually loved when it came out. I don’t know how anyone could dislike Nic Cage pretending to be John Travolta pretending to be Nic Cage. Pure gold.
JSB: How about America’s beloved, Fifty Shades of Grey?
EF: Oh god, that one hurt. We listen all of our books as audiobooks, so it was like being stuck in a fairly abusive relationship for 16 hours. I would have paid $200 to have someone else read that one for me, or $400 to have it wiped from my memory.
JSB: What book, film or television show are you aching to review next?
EF: Right now, I’ve got my sights on the new Dan Brown book. That’s a sweet spot for me. It’s ridiculous enough to mock, but it’s bound to be infinitely more enjoyable than something like the 60 hours of Atlas Shrugged we had to slog through. That took a month and broke my brain.
Also Ryan Lochte is supposed to have a train-wreck of a TV show, which might be worth taking on.
JSB: Is there anything you’d like to leave us with regarding your writing career or Read it and Weep?
EF: I hope that everyone finds their own personal Nicholas Cage, whatever that means to them.