1: INSURRECTILE DISFUNCTION

For our inaugural episode of “The Sweetest Pod” I thought it was important to show that not only is this podcast funny and thoughtful, but often timely. Tackling issues that the country is grappling with & keeping in mind the gravity of any situation, while also looking at the humorous, or hypocritical aspects of it as well. So for this episode, I called on one of my favorite NY performers, Dion Flynn, to talk about the Insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th. Dion is best known as playing Barack Obama (and others) on the “Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon,” but he’s also a regular performer on TruTV’s game show “Paid Off” & LOGO’s “Big Gay Sketch Show,” and has made appearances on AdultSwim’s “Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell,” VH1’s “Best Week Ever” and much more. He’s also was a veteran of US Army, and toured with his one man show “The Only Brown Kid in the Trailer Park.” 

      We talked about all the characters that emerged from the insurrection, including of course, The Q-anon Shaman (with the fun/horns hat), who calls himself an actor, “Elizabeth from Knoxville,” and even the guy who may, or may not, have tasered his own balls while in the process. We talk about their thought process and about how, even though a number of them had been planning this for months, and came prepared in full combat gear with zip-ties, guns, knives, bombs, etc. most of them didn’t know what to do once they got into the Capitol. So they went to the Senate floor, to the offices, and just took pictures of themselves sitting in the Senate chairs, or at someone’s desk— like they were at Disney. They had no idea that this was all going to be the evidence FBI uses to arrest them all. They had no idea that is was even going to be considered against the law! That’s how delusional and entitled these white people were. We also specifically talk about the differences between and the real anger it takes to both destroy a Target or storm the Capitol building, as well as the how Trump’s long history of dividing people and pitching them against each other in business, and in The Apprentice, played into this. Plus how many of Capitol police were conflicted as to what was happening, and how many of the stormers were both police and former army? 

      In the end, we try to figure out what these folks might see in Donald Trump, and why they are so attached to him, and every word he says. Dion feels like there’s a real fear in the white America that are being eradicated, and we can’t ignore it or sweep it under the rug, or as Dion observes, “we’ll have a real lumpy rug!”

     (Also Dion had a brief scare as he thought someone was casing his car while he was recording, and if he had been carjacked, it would have been epic!)