Adam sits down one-on-one with documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. Morgan compliments Adam on the comfortable couches, and they compare the interview experience to doing an episode of Jay Leno or David Letterman. Morgan also talks a bit about his latest film, ‘Freakonomics,’ based on the best selling book. Adam asks Morgan about some of his favorite facts from the movie, and tries to figure out ways to incentivise Donny to move his bronco out of the garage.
The guys chat about their favorite documentaries, including The Kid Stays in the Picture, Overnight, and The King of Kong. Adam tells a story about rushing to see the latter documentary before meeting with the director, and being blown away by how unprepared everyone else was in the meeting. Adam jokes about preparedness in show biz, and mentions Jon Stewart’s recent appearance on Bill O’Reilly’s show.
Speaking more about Freakonomics, the film is broken down into different chapters, each directed by an all-star documentarian. Morgan is reminded of another chapter in the book, which deals with your child’s success in life based on how you name them. They talk about the experiments with various resumes, and also offer case studies about people with unusual names.
Adam takes a couple listener calls, the first of which asks Morgan about his involvement with The Simpsons. Morgan talks about getting a call and thinking it was a prank, but clearly he was excited to be part of the 20th Anniversary special. Another caller inquires about a Super Size Me sequel, and Morgan considers how much weight he’d have to gain for it to be worth it. They get to talking about Robert DeNiro’s weight gain for Raging Bull, and eventually talk about their favorite scenes from Goodfellas, as well as discuss the new HBO series, Boardwalk Empire.
Adam asks Morgan about his LA schedule, and Morgan says it’s been almost all promotions for Freakonomics. He explains that the movie is available online, and also on demand; in conjunction with a limited theatrical release. They talk about some of the films they’ve seen recently on the big screen, and also analyze the communal experience of film, theater and sports, as opposed to seeing it alone.
Towards the end of the interview, Adam talks about interviewing Mike Tyson while he was promoting his documentary last year. He jokes about the difficulties of wrangling him and the filmmaker, and also wonders if Tyson is a sympathetic figure or not. Morgan cracks a joke about Tyson owning a tiger, and before long Adam and Morgan imagine being mauled by animals and becoming part of the food chain.
Check out Freakonomics via iTunes or onDemand. Also keep your eyes peeled Oct 12th on AMC for the new series, Committed. For more info, visit: www.morganspurlock.com
Also check out today’s Stitcher extra content, where Adam reveals this week’s football picks. Stitcher! – http://landing.stitcher.com/?srcid=428
Executive Producer: Donny Misraje
Producers: Mike Dawson & Mike Lynch
Audio: Mike Dawson
Writer: Mike Lynch
Production Engineer: Logan Moy
Search: Katie Levine
Build and Edit: Katie Levine
Phones: Brian Meyer
Show Summary: Matt Fondiler