25 Minutes of Silence with Joey Clift Joey Clift

William Denton is a scholarly analytics and mathematics and statistics librarian at York University in Toronto. He is also a man interested in the music of everyday sounds. He created STAPLR, which is a program that takes all of the noises around the reference desks of his library and live converts them into synthesized music that anyone in the world can listen to at staplr.org. There are a lot of questions I could have asked him about his time as a librarian at York University, his thoughts on songification, or his passion for all things sound but instead, we just sat in silence for 25 minutes.

On this, our 26th episode of 25 Minutes of Silence we go on a retrospective of the best moments from our first 25 episodes and boy, have there been some good ones. In just 25 episodes we’ve had everyone from a New York Times best selling author, to a former astronaut to a former presidential candidate, to an Emmy Award winning writer to the lead singer of The Presidents of the United States of America and many others. These are all important, accomplished people who chose to sit in silence with me for 25 minutes. Was your favorite moment not included in this episode? Let me know by shooting me an e-mail at 25minutesofsilence@gmail.com.

Ken Bone’s life changed on October 9, 2016 after asking Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump a question about energy policy during the second presidential debate. His bright red sweater, glasses, disposable camera and genuine demeanor skyrocketed him to “internet meme” status within hours. The internet obsession with Ken Bone lead to endorsement deals, merchandise, and guest spots on some of the nation’s most prestigious talk shows. Through all of that, Ken has maintained being the same “normal guy” that just wanted to ask a question. Before recording this episode, Ken and I talked about his rise to stardom, the internet’s tendency to obsess over the weirdest things, and how “it’s possible for anyone to get used to anything.” During the episode, we just sat in silence for 25 minutes. Ken used that time to reply to letters from fans.

Matt Besser is one of the founding members of the Upright Citizen’s Brigade sketch group and theater. Together Besser, Amy Poehler, Matt Walsh and Ian Roberts helped revolutionize sketch comedy in the 1990s with their Comedy Central series and with the thousands of students that walk the halls of the UCB Theater each year, the UCB Four have become some of the most influential voices in modern comedy. I could have talked to Besser about the creation of “game philosophy”, his hilarious improv podcast Improv 4 Humans on Earwolf, his comedy special Besser Breaks The Record, the UCB Show Season 2 on Seeso, or his thoughts on the future of comedy. Instead of talking about any of that, we sat in silence for 25 minutes in his office in Los Angeles. Matt used that time to silently take me on a journey through his and his family’s shared history. It was both interesting and maybe the weirdest thing I’ve ever experienced.

In 2016, Cartoon Network rebooted the classic 90s series The Powerpuff Girls. Today’s guest isn’t one of the show’s writers or one of the show’s artists, it’s nine of them! The series writers, Jake Goldman and Haley Mancini as well as many of the artists that create the Emmy nominated series each week joined me in this Powerpuff spectacular. I could have asked the team about what it’s like creating cartoons, the struggles of updating such a beloved brand, how to get a job in animation, or literally any fan question you can think of about The Powerpuff Girls. Instead of doing any of that, the ten of us sat in silence for 25 minutes. They used that time to draw or read.  

Emmy award winning comedy writer Mike Upchurch literally wrote the book on sketch comedy. His University of Nevada master’s thesis, “The Poetics of Sketch Comedy” acts both as a history lesson, and a how to guide on all things sketch. Besides his Emmy winning stint in The Chris Rock Show writer’s room, he’s also written for classic sketch comedy series Mr. Show With Bob And David, MadTV and Blue Collar TV among other places. He currently teaches sketch comedy writing at The Pack Theater in Los Angeles. I can’t think of a better person to talk to about sketch comedy history, what it was like to be a part of some of the best sketch writer’s rooms in television, or what his thoughts are on the future of sketch comedy. Instead of talking about that, we just sat in silence in my car for 25 minutes. It was raining out, so that’s something at least.