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BONUS. Frog Poking

Cake & Cookies. The Robb & Katie Show

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Mike O'Meara, Radio Entertainment.

Cake and cookies.

Rob and Katie.

It's the Rob and Katie Show.

Hello, friends.

I want to start off by saying one thing emphatically.

This is not an official episode of Cake and Cookies.

Katie is not here.

But instead, you get me, your old buddy Rob Spiewak, right here in the Rob Radio World Broadcast Headquarters.

And I'm going to conduct an interview.

So, while this is not an official episode of the Cake and the Cookies,

My electric bill keeps creeping up every month this summer. You know what, Mike? We hear that from Florida homeowners all the time. Renewal by Anderson's energy-efficient replacement windows can help reduce heat transfer, improving comfort and lowering energy costs. Nice. And you've got some end-of-the-summer savings happening? That's right. This month only, buy four windows or doors and get the fifth free, plus 12-month special financing. Just go to bestwindowsflorida.com to schedule your free in-home design consultation to claim these savings. Restrictions apply. License number CGC1527613. This episode is sponsored by AirMedCare Network. When you're a world traveler, adventure has no borders. But if a medical emergency strikes far from home, you want to get back to familiar faces and familiar care. That's why there's Fly You Home membership. For just $14.99 a month, we'll fly you back closer to home to recover. It's the peace of mind every traveler should carry. And right now, you can get an e-gift card with code RECOVER at checkout. Travel boldly. Go to airmedcarenetwork.com and sign up for Fly You Home today. I think most people are looking for more simplicity these days. That's one reason I appreciate Azure's standard. At first, I thought it was just about groceries. Then, I discovered gardening supplies, pantry staples, household products, and so many of the other things we use every day. They've spent over 30 years delivering clean, organic groceries and earth-friendly products to families who care about what goes on their plates and into their lives. Everything they offer is rooted in real nutrition, transparency, and trust. What I like is that it encourages a different mindset. Instead of constantly running to the store, you begin thinking about your home differently. You stock your pantry. You plan family meals. Maybe you plant a garden. You become a little more intentional about what you bring into your home. That's what abundance means to me. Experience new products and stock up on your favorites during this month's waves of abundance sales. Discover a simpler, healthier way to shop for the things that matter most at azurestandard.com. That's A-Z-U-R-E standard dot com. Back to school is busy enough. The last thing you need is shopping that makes it harder. Whether you're moving into a dorm, your first apartment, or just getting organized for the semester, Wayfair makes it easy to get everything you need in one place. Furniture, bedding, storage, decor, study essentials, all at prices you'll love. With fast shipping before move-in day. Get everything you need for back-to-school season. Shop wayfair.com today. Wayfair, every style, every home. Mike O'Meara, Radio Entertainment. Cake and cookies. Rob and Katie. It's the Rob and Katie Show. Hello, friends. I want to start off by saying one thing emphatically. This is not an official episode of Cake and Cookies. Katie is not here. But instead, you get me, your old buddy Rob Spiewak, right here in the Rob Radio World Broadcast Headquarters. And I'm going to conduct an interview. So, while this is not an official episode of the Cake and the Cookies, I still need to start by saying thank you to Mike and to Oscar and to Boom Boom Bloom and everyone at More Broadcasting for allowing me to share this with you. I have known this guy via email and I think it even goes back to a point when we wrote letters for years now. His name is Mike Sachs. He currently works at Vanity Fair Magazine in New York City and he is a tremendously funny author. And he's come out with a book that I fell in love with. It's called Poking a Dead Frog. Conversations with today's top comedy writers where he did long-form interviews with 45 of the most influential writers of comedy that are still around to be interviewed. If you are, like myself, a comedy nerd, you are in for a true treat. This gets inside comedy like no other book I have ever read. And I think you will find the book fascinating and I hope you find the interview quite pleasurable. So, check it out. It's Poking a Dead Frog with Mike Sachs right here on the unofficial Cake and Cookies radio network. Paperback Writer We are joined now on our Skype machine by author Mike Sachs, who I must be honest, even though I've been aware of his work and actually communicated with him via email for years now, we have never met. We have to, full disclosure, reveal the fact that we have never met. We've never even talked, have we, Mike? We haven't. We should make it clear that even though you're using Skype, it's still audio. I still can't see that beautiful face of yours. Well, you'd need an awfully big monitor to get this head in. You would have to show it probably in pieces. Well, I have a 34-inch black and white, so I think it would work perfect. Well, I want to say, first and foremost, I am a fan. And I believe you actually first emailed me because you used to listen to the Don and Mike show, right? Yes. I was a huge fan, still am, of the show and still am of the work you guys are doing, the podcasts. I grew up in Northern Virginia and in Maryland. And literally, I would say, this is no exaggeration, I spent years driving around in my white Acura, listening to the Don and Mike show, just driving. It was sort of a hypnotic thing for me. But it was very influential, and I loved it. It really meant a lot to me. There wasn't that much great comedy coming out of D.C., as you know. There was Mark Russell, there was the Capitol Steps, and then there was this, which was amazing. So it made a big impact on me. Where did you live in Virginia? What town? Alexandria. Ah, okay, very cool. Just outside the district, so that's nice. You have worked for the Washington Post and the New Yorker and Time and Esquire and GQ and Radar and Believer. And really, Mike, why can't you hold a job? Well, here's what I'm most proud of. I worked for 10 years from 15 to 25 off and on at various Catmull Records around the D.C. area. Very nice. Oh, I still remember the commercial with the hammer hitting the record player. It's $5.99, and it's all the time. I think the commercial itself costs $5.99. But you are currently working in editorial at Vanity Fair, is that right? That's right, editorial Vanity Fair, and I freelance with books and articles. Now, that's kind of funny to me because I don't really think of Vanity Fair as a go-to for comedy. Great articles, amazing, amazing magazine, but does Vanity Fair allow you to be funny? Because you are a very funny writer. Oh, thanks so much. Well, you know, Graydon Carter, who's the editor of Vanity Fair, used to be the editor. He was the co-creator of Spy Magazine, so he has an amazing sense of humor. Love that magazine. Unless it has to do with murdering rich Monte Carlo millionaires, no. The sense of humor is not too grand at the magazine. But they do allow me to freelance for other magazines, New Yorker, Esquire, GQ, and I've written numerous books under their, you know, the fact that they let me work here and write books. I think it's just, I'm very, very lucky. I think the first book of yours that I ever read was Your Wildest Dreams. And that is actually a collection of essays that were published in other media, right? That's right. That was a collection of short humor pieces in the vein of Woody Allen's Without Feathers, that type of book. Right. And those were collected pieces from New Yorker Esquire and McSweeney's and that sort of thing. I just wanted to put everything into one spot and just sort of move on. And that was the last book before this one. I loved it. And I know the book we're going to be talking about is called Poking a Dead Frog. But when you go to Amazon to buy it, treat yourself and pick up a copy of Your Wildest Dreams. My three favorite pieces, because I know you care, were The Bachelor Party, What You Need to Know. Game show catchphrases that never quite caught on. And I think the funniest piece in the book, one that I've read dozens of times, When Making Love to Me, What Every Woman Needs to Know. I once read that at a live event at a college, and I could not have bombed worse. Oh, geez. It was horrible. It was disastrous. In fact, it was so bad that it put me off live readings for a number of years. I just did the first one in years for the new book. It was an interview with Bill Hader in Brooklyn. But yeah, until then, it was just like, oh, my God, what am I doing? I'm not a live performer. This is a reaction. I'm just not going to travel anywhere. Do you think it's a, is it because there is a difference between the spoken word and written word? Because the stuff on paper is so fantastic. Oh, thanks. No, that's a very good point, actually. I think a lot of people who are good in a live setting have a rough time making that transition to the written page, because it's a totally different set of chops to be funny on the page. And also, you know, by the same token, I think it's a very, very different style of comedy to be able to perform live versus writing. You know, it's very easy for me to write something. But to do what you do every day, to do what live performers do, is a whole different ballgame. So I do think there's quite a difference, especially when it comes with comedy. It's so funny because you, I think you've captured so many great different styles of comedy. And let's go ahead and talk about it. Your fifth book is called Poking a Dead Frog, which is not a cookbook. No, not yet. Can you explain what the title means? Yeah. There was a famous quote by E.B. White, who was a New Yorker writer. He also wrote children's books, including Charlotte's Web. And the full quote is this. Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process, and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind. Humor won't stand much poking. It has a certain fragility and evasiveness, which one had best respect. So I always like that quote. You can't really analyze humor. It's a very murky, mysterious subject. Oftentimes people don't want to talk about it because it's almost magic to them. They don't know where they get the ideas or why they get the ideas. So Poking a Dead Frog is just my joke. I put out a book in 2009 that was interviews with comedy writers, and here I am yet again poking the dead frog. No joke can stand up to the autopsy, because the autopsy kills any chance of it ever being funny. That's right. Not the case, I think, in this book. It's such a fascinating way to get inside the heads of some of the most influential comedy writers that are still around and are currently working. I was surprised how many of them that I knew their work but did not know them by name. How did you put together this list? Well, that was the thing. I used to look at the scroll, the writing scroll, at the end of TV shows or on screenplays, and who are these people who have devoted their lives to comedy writing? That always interested me. So when I watched Cheers, the actors... I love the show and I love the actors, but what really interested me were the writers for the show. So in that case, I went after the person who created the show, Glenn Charles, along with his brother, Les. And the thing about these writers are, you're right, people don't know a lot of these names, but if you look at what they've created, everyone will know who they are and what their life's work meant to them. And they're usually behind the scenes and they usually have amazing stories. And to go after these people and to ask them who they are, where they came from, and their history interests me just from a pop culture and historical standpoint. I loved in the first book, and here I am selling every book except the one we're promoting. We will get to it, I promise. You did work a little bit for Mad Magazine, right? I did. You know, when I was in college, came back to D.C., and I was writing for Cracked Magazine. Okay. It's a different Cracked than it is now, and also Mad

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