Zack Slingsby's bet on scripted comedy from Nashville

Funding for This is Nashville comes from hands-on, powered by United Way of Greater Nashville, serving nine counties across Middle Tennessee, connecting volunteers with local nonprofit projects. More at hands-on.un.unitedway greater Nashville.org. I'm Blake Farmer, and this is Nashville. This is a town for writers, typically songwriters, not screenwriters, but Zach Slingsby has made Nashville home base for his new comedy production studio King Jester. He's publishing his first novel, which you wouldn't think is funny by the title, The Ballad of the Gangster's Daughter. But he made his first novel a bit of a punchline in a recent social media sketch. Copies from the publisher, my new novel, I want to give it first one to you. Oh, dude, that's awesome. Oh, Will already gave me this copy. I've already read it. It's awesome. It's a good book. You already read it. You did great. You crushed it. Thank you. Yeah, I didn't realize how great writer you were. You read it the whole book. Cover to cover. Sure did. Wow. Yeah. You liked it. Yeah, I loved it, man. It's so good. Yeah, I loved it. Chapter 8. What did you think in Chapter 8? Chapter 8? What did you think of chapter? The way you intertwined the words and wrote the words on the page. The way intertwined. The way intertwined. Seven chapters. Seven chapters. Seven. Seven. Seven sisters. That's the point. I can't read. I can't read every book. You read the page of the book. I've been talking about this book. You know this is important to me. You didn't read a page of the book. Okay. Well, when it becomes a New York Times bestseller, I'll read it. You know, when it becomes the New York Times bestseller, Zach Slingsby, welcome to this as Nashville. I'm glad we're starting out with, you can see the sense of support system that's been built in my life, in my community. So, it's good. You know, and obviously, I think you even are, you're not saying this, but the comedy is saying it, which is what good comedy does, which is like, it's hard to get people to read 200 pages of anything. Yeah. How do you do that right now? Yeah. I don't know. I mean, you're into getting people, you know, their attention while scrolling. Good luck with 200 pages. It's really true. I don't know. I don't know the answer. I don't know. It's worth more. I know that. So there's fewer people who are going to read a book, but those people are going to spend hours and hours with you versus if a clip, so if 5,000 people read a work of literary fiction, that's a smashing success today by the numbers. Wait, really? Selling 5,000 books is great. 5,000 copies is you're in the top, I believe you're in less than, you're in the top 10% easily, maybe the top 4% or 5% if you sell 5,000. But of literary fiction. Got it. If 5,000 people watch a video of ours, that's catastrophic failure. So it's really depends on what you're asking for someone and then, you know, what they're getting out of it. A reminder to our audience, you can watch today's episode at YouTube.com slash at WPLN. If you'd rather watch instead of listen, this man's in video too. So you set your book in New York and I'm guessing that our listeners can tell from your accent that you're...

You may be from there. Not enough gangster lore in middle Tennessee to set this book here. I'm from a nice part of it. I'm from Rockland County. So I, if you, the people that were in my extended family, they would not think that I sound like I'm from anywhere. Really? Oh, yeah. The Bronx affectation of those voices is crazy. So I don't have any of that. But the, I grew up in Rockland County. Actually, we were just talking because. Yes, because Lil Lombardi is from New Jersey. Yeah, yeah. So people from that area don't have too much of a distinct. you know, some, but everybody who, uh, in my sort of extended family very much would sound like the people characters in this book. Yeah. Um, and was the sort of gangster lore something that was big growing up? Huge. Partially culturally, just because of the time, you know, it was like, The 90s were full of like the John Gotti trial and everything and all these big things happening. The five families and Giuliani going after him. So all that stuff was in the background of my childhood. And then just culturally sopranos came out early 2000. So it was just such a big thing. For us and everybody kind of knew someone who was tangentially related to that world. And that's all the Italian side of this book is not about the mafia. It's about a guy who happens to have his own sort of organized criminal, you know, empire that's that's. sort of outside of the mafia. He's an Irish-English guy from New York. And it's this daughter of the criminal entrepreneur who, I guess, has sort of done a little better, tried to get his family away from some of that in Connecticut. But I wonder, what does the life of your main character, Serena Magic, show us? So her father is this guy, this criminal entrepreneur, who has... like you said, safely relocated the family to the more affluent suburbs of Connecticut. And in each chapter, Serena's character experiences a new law. She loses different members of her family. And as she goes through that, she's constantly hitting these checkpoints where she has to make a decision between staying as close to the family as possible, helping them through these tragedies, helping them figure out how to navigate this underworld of crime that they're in, and going out and exploring her own gifts, her own, the things that she feel she's called to do in the world. And she's an incredibly talented person. She thinks she can do anything for the most part. She's right. And so she's always, the world's always offering her opportunities and the family's always sort of dragging her back into their nefarious dealings. Well, you've said that your favorite novels are some of, you know, those heavier books. Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky, East of Eden by Steinbeck.

and that you like that they depict such huge ideas that they can only be communicated through a plot and literary truth. How did you find that? That's great. Well, I think you said it. I strongly agree, yes. Well, that's why you agree, because you've said it. Yeah. So, yeah, what are you going for in your writing? You know, like, are you trying to say something bigger than here's a great story that'll pull in the reader? Definitely. I mean, I think everyone's trying to. It's just... Those books that you mentioned are so, there's so much poignancy in character and they're always, they're unearthing something really deep about the human condition, but they're also really fun to read. They're also patrons. Crime and punishment is like a thriller. It reads, you can, there's murder, there's, you know, man, there's plotting, there's secrecy, there's lies, there's cops, police investigation, there's romance and betrayal. Everything about it is... has all the ingredients of a pulp fiction type novel, yet it happens to also have these huge existential questions about death and God and what truth is and whether you can be so crazy that you start to make sense, like really strange, huge ideas buried in this chest of this really interesting, propulsive thriller. So I've always tried to write like that. It's very hard, it's very hard to combine all those things, but there's definitely been an ambition. Well, I mean, if I understand correctly, you kind of started out as a writer writing books and maybe not getting them published, but that was the intent from the beginning? In my early 20s, I got an MFA, Master of Fine Arts at the new school right out of college. And I was at that time when I was doing that master's program, I was interning and I'm part-time jobs at publishing houses, literary agencies. And I wrote a novel in that program that I had gotten a prestigious literary agent for. And for a number of reasons, it failed to sell through to a publisher. In the publishing world, you have several checkpoints. So you get an agent that works out. You get a crack at a bunch of publishers. And then even in those publishers, you typically need a unanimous consent among the acquisitions boards. So you got like eight or ten voices giving votes. So we were getting... you know right to the finish line with a lot of these and it wasn't working so i'm 24 25 it really was heartbreaking for me and by the time you know those decisions unfurl over not just a month that's like a year of feedback you're getting so i'm working different jobs now in dc and trying to write another novel to publish Anyway, this whole ordeal really pushes me into branded content, brand entertainment, and using this storytelling kind of, this love of storytelling to explore the digital content world. What do you think it is about the book? I mean, this is true for journalists, too, that journalists will kind of like, you know. I've got at least one book in me as kind of, you know, the thought. Maybe it's not just, I mean, you talk to lawyers, you talk to an architect. What is it about the book that still, even though we know what sells, we know what has eyeballs, something about having it all in between covers that really motivates people? The writers? Yeah.

Well, it's really hard. I mean, now you can ask ChatGBT to do it. But if you don't do that, it's really hard. And then it's very personal and it feels... You know, I think it's the hardest thing to do. I remember a good screenwriter friend of mine, he had written a lot of novels, and I said, how is it writing a screenplay after, you know, he says, effortless. It's effortless after you've written a novel. And I sort of not to, you know, no shade on the people out there who are, because it's its own very difficult challenge. But there's something about prose and the trenches of a sentence. figuring out how to communicate a big idea and keep it propelling and moving everything forward. It's a really unique challenge. And if you can do it to your own satisfaction, that by itself is a reward. So, you know, everything after that is very onerous and redundant. But the actual wrestling with it and getting it done and feeling like you had it in and you didn't know, like Norman Miller said that was his greatest thrill of writing was an insight that his writing revealed he wasn't aware that he possessed. That he learned from his own writing. Yeah. That's beautiful. I'm Blake Farmer. This is Nashville. Our guest is writer, Zach Slingsby. You consider yourself a comedian? No. Well, you're into the comedy game. I write comedy. I produce and direct. I do not consider me. If you put me on a stage with the microphone and said, he's 100 people, please get them all live. That would be a big challenge. I shouldn't ask me for a joke. No, I would be very disappointed. Well, this year you launched King Jester, I think it was this year, correct? Correct. Which seems to be trying to bring scripted comedy shot at high quality with good audio. to social media. And let's listen to this. This video sort of lays out, I think, the thesis. You've got this woman with this deep red V-neck dress barging into your studios. Once upon a time, comedians spent years perfecting their craft. This is for when you need a new hook after your Instagram famous cat has died. She makes $700,000 a year. You know, when your dad shows you a movie and says they don't make them like that anymore. They don't, and nobody cares. All right, I'm about to start the street. Don't jump. I'm going! Steve Martin couldn't be here today, so we got that guy. Oh, I'm glad to see the door, I think. I got 22 million views. Oh, yeah, okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Oh, you want great characters and classic stories. Don't lie to me. We're all in a competition with Sidney's Swinney's Booms, and Sydney Swinney's Booms have us on the ropes. For those who don't spend their time on social media, the Sidney-Sweeney thing is real. Like there's more conversation about...

her chest than a lot of other topics. Sure. There's a lot in there and the theater of the mind. You'll have to go watch it because obviously you didn't know that a guy was jumping off of a railing and in a stupid looking way just to, I guess, get a bunch of it. But what is that, all those jokes that are in there, I don't know, not to ask a comedy writer to explain them. But what are you poking fun at? Well, that one is weird because, yeah, it's one of our more whatever meta videos. It's not, we're usually just telling stories. And we're not trying to have this heavy-handed message. I mean, it's- But you're commenting on the forum. Well, in this case, yeah, certainly, yeah. It's... I mean, I don't know how do you interpret it? I'd be more interesting. I feel like it'd be more interesting if you said what you think. Let's see. Well, I mean, yes. I mean, it's, it just is kind of roasting all the silly stuff that gets unbelievable. Every time you open a social media app, you're like, how does this have 50 million views? I mean, that to me is what is getting at. You're like, is that all you have to do? Jump off of something and look hurt to, you know, get people's attention, which I would guess as a content producer is a little bit depressing. Well, anybody who's, well, most people involved in what we're doing grew up loving, you know, great comedy movies, right? She mentioned Steve Martin, but it's like whatever, even more recent old school or super bad or stuff that's in, that for whatever reason, there was massive impact at theaters and everybody left quoting, quoting to your friends or whatever, every generation has their own version of it. Yeah. Like Tommy Boy or. Yeah, totally. Dumb and Dumber. Well, now, and if you put Tommy Boy or Dumb and Dumber on YouTube tomorrow, no one had ever heard of it. it's very likely to sit at around a thousand days because it's missing the properties of a successful YouTube video, right? It's a hook and escalation at a current time and a turn and all these kind of mechanics of digital engineering that make these things really pop. So there is a recipe, even I guess you must have been studying it to be like, okay, there's a bunch of people doing unscripted stuff and... do editing it together and figuring out how to crack the code yeah and you're like well can we crack that code but but intentionally with the script yeah you're yeah ironically that video probably didn't do as well as our other some of our other ones that are more there's definitely well the algorithm knew you were making fun of it yeah I didn't want any piece of that um it some clips of it did very like it's it's a very like There is a game to it. And you can learn the rules of the game and you can play the game. Now, scripted is really not, most digital platforms are not that friendly to it. A lot of people are betting it's going to change because meta and Instagram putting out these sort of episodic formats and enabling creators to do these shows that are more like seasons. So I do think we might see a turn. But there's something about the platforms that don't love scripted content. They just, they really like.

viewers are going there to see sort of absurdity escalation, some conflicts, some chaos, and something that... They know there were cameras and actors involved and it just doesn't feel consequential enough to a YouTube viewer. You know, I mean, I think of, I don't want to put anybody on blast, but, you know, I have a six-year-old who has found a new thing that I will not say the name of this young person who clearly has an entire videoed life. And it's highly, I don't know if you call it scripted word for word, but it's like, It's just following this person around. They come up with things they're going to do to the dad or whatever. And I just think, how do these things get millions of people, including my daughter, to just be... Watch like it's addictive? And they're using the same voice. It's like this... I guess that's part of the recipe, but I don't get it. What do you get? It's just... It went by me. I don't know. I'm 37. I don't know. It got by me. I don't know exactly. It's obviously it's got a real stickiness for a reason. I'm also, I don't like to blame viewers, you know? I mean, it's like they organize this stuff very carefully and they're trying to grab me and hooky and beat you and everything else and it works. And so there's human psychology principles at play. I think that the big question for me is, does the internet merge with traditional TV? Is there this moment where... If TV falls apart, does the internet catch it somehow? And what are those episodic or feature films? What does that look like? How does that happen? When are we able to... And that's what you're trying to sort of be in position for. We're trying to be in position for. We're trying to figure it out. It's a heck of a lab experiment. But yeah. Why from Nashville? I moved here five years ago from New York. We still do a lot of production in New York. Two of my partners are in New York and we still do a lot of stuff there, especially on the brand side and some comedy too. Nashville just a little bit of a happenstance of I'm already here. Wait, five years ago. It was kind of like a COVID move? Early 21, yeah. Like we're getting out of New York? Partially. We were living in, as I said, before, Leonia, New Jersey, and it just felt like, you know, we had a lot of productions at the time put on hold. And I knew, you know, a partner and some team members were going to stay there. So it felt like an opportunity to see what was going on in other cities creatively and see what else we could kind of build as a second outpost. And this was the top contender. Best place in the world. Who wants to? I know you're from here, right? I am from here. Although, I'm suspicious when anybody is like, oh, this is the best. Just all of us getting here and coming in and are you happy about this or not really? It's not mine to have to, you know, care about. You have an opinion, though, as a local. I think it makes it a far more interesting place to be. You know, I mean, you meet people with so many varied backgrounds. And I mean, I feel like.

growing up, it's not like everybody I knew was from here. People were moving here then too, but it's... But this is crazy, right? It's such explosion. You know, you talk about the New York and L.A. influx, and it almost seems like overplayed. And then I was a few years ago, I was the den leader of for my son's Cub Scout den. And I looked around and I was like, oh, this is it. I was like, that family's from New York. That family's from L.A. They moved here from L.A. They were from New York. And I'm realizing, oh, it's... they're all around me and I almost had to step back for a moment to realize that it is a very real phenomenon that's going on but I I love that people want to be here I mean when people complain about it or say the traffic's bad I'm like you haven't been to Houston lately or you haven't been to what you know somewhere with real traffic I have no complaint about the traffic at all I lived in D.C. and New York. There's the two worst places you could live for traffic. So this is nothing. Listen, Zach Slingsby, he's here for the traffic. And not just because he's listening to Public Radio while he's waiting there. Let's work in one more clip before we have to take a break. But as an example of Ural's work, you know, a lot of these don't work very well. It's just audio. But this one seemed pretty good, and it's funny. Here's a clip where you've got a few black guys putting on a class for white guys who are acting very white. Repeat after me, until the snap, there is no gap. Until the snap, there is no gap. Positions. Hey, you two, white man, on the camera. At ease.

So what we try to do here at DAP UPS for White Dudes is create a judgment-free zone for white boys to practice their daps. We know that most of these doofs are going to meet two, three or four black people in their entire lives, maybe five if they like to go get fried foods and whatnot, and we're prepared to export them financially. That's Tyler Munger, and that was their idea. That was their sketch, their idea. They wrote it. The guy who was acting. Yeah, and another comedian. And they, Sean Griffin, and they were hilarious, yeah. Well, is the idea of King Jester to have a place where if you are somebody into comedy, maybe it's not stand up, maybe it's not writing, but like trying to. do these sketches that they have a place to come do it and they've got partner with you. Exactly. And we work with comedians from all over the internet who have their own tribes. They're popular with their own fans and they come in. We either have an idea that we think they're great for and we kind of pitch it to them. They like it. We write it and then they help refine it into their voice and we make it together or it's times like this where they come in, they have the idea, they have it ready and we help them produce it. I see. And is there Is there a desire for this or you having to kind of sell it where it's like, why would I pay you to help me do this when really I can do it sort of on the cheap and the internet likes it just as much? Well, they're not paying us to do this. Comedians. We're partnering with them. Yeah. Or, you know. we if we're hiring comics to be in something we're often paying that but the the platform makes money through brand entertainment monetization and brand integration right so those are all different those are all different ways of monetizing content i can get into all that how interesting anybody finds it but it's um the entertainment it works just like you would find a show on a streamer right it's cast and their cast is paid for their time in this case significantly less than they would be if they were working on a on a show at hulu or netflix or in l a it's it's these are all digital projects other digital budget ranges but it's also much quicker uh production experience for them right they're coming in hanging out with us for a half a day not for you know a week of shooting So it's a different model. It's a model reflective of a changing entertainment landscape. Yeah. Is there enough, I hate to say the word talent, because it makes it sound like there's untalented people here, but like just people who are interested in acting and comedy. Absolutely. Really? Yeah, it's not Austin for the comedy scene, which is blowing up, the mothership and all that, but it's a place where, first, all kinds of great comedians come through all the time. Playing Zanis, Bridgestone, you know, different shows in town. There are a great, very popular podcast here they come in to do. So a lot of the headliners that we work with have come into town for a few days. Oh, you're saying like having big dogs like Theo Vaughn or having Nate Bergotsie's, but like that actually brings other comedians to town maybe to talk to them and then you can sort of piggyback. Or to do a show. We know they'll be here in a few months. We plan to do a day of shooting with them while they're in town. Or there are folks who live here at Zanis, some amazingly talented comics.

just are regulars at Zanis. Well, I was I was chuckling my head off to Dusty Slay on the way to bed last night. We need to take a break. We're going to be back with Zach Slingsby. In just a moment, we'll talk a little more Nashville and get into some hot button topics. Stay with us. This is Nashville. Way back in 1952, the bronze mercury statue atop Union Station took a tumble. There's been a replacement up there for the past 30 years, and that prompted the question, The original, I'm wondering where it could be. Curious Nashville chases down the old bronze with some twists and turns along the way. Learn more and ask your question at WPLN.org forward slash curious. I'm Blake Farmer, and this is Nashville.

Zach Slingsby is trying to make a way for scripted comedy to make it on social media. He's launched King Jester this year here in Nashville, which is a studio that's putting up little sketches, you know, every few days or so. Zach, how does the business model work? You know, you talked a bit about kind of all the, you know, throw out the buzzwords. It could be branded. It could be this. How does one expect to make money doing videos for free? Good question. So the reason that we got an opportunity to do the comedy thing at all is because we had been doing brand entertainment for eight years before that. So brand entertainment means a brand hires you to make something that they own. So they pay you to make it. They own the final asset. That could be a documentary, could be web series, could be a comedy series, could be a corporate video, could be whatever. So anything that's not explicitly an advertisement qualifies. branded content or brand entertainment. We did that through a company called Human Factor Media for the last eight years. Now, we have taken that core capability and put it under King Jester. So we still have Human Factor Media, but under King Jester, we also have a brand studio where we're partnering with brands to make shows that they own. We have a number of those in production now and a bunch more coming next year. And that's its own revenue source. And it also is just a hugely popular... content piece right now right like brands everywhere are trying to go into the content business not as producers excuse me not as sponsors but as producers right so making something that is genuinely yes compelling to watch exactly and subtly you know plays to their Exactly. So we had, through that work, we had done a lot of comedy, we had produced a lot of different stuff, knew a lot of comics already, and it worked with agents and telemaging, and we kind of realized there was this whole around scripted comedy, which maybe, you know, funny or die used to fill on the internet, right? Where you would have these different comics that got to come in for a day, make something original, and didn't have to go through the onerous process of a network or figure out with NBC or they're going to do their pilot or pitched Netflix for a year, right? Just something quick. and, you know, lower cost threshold to entry. So we were able to bringing the branded thing over there, kind of get the financing to spin up this comedy thing. Well, it does seem too like if you're outside of the networks, you have a little more freedom to, you know, poke the bear or get into something that is, you know, controversial and you don't have to sell a bunch of people that it's a good idea. You know, some of these topics are almost too hot to touch in some way. Let's listen a little bit of this. It's a sketch about the government worker who is supposed to redact the Epstein files. A lot of these files are from the year 2001. Hmm. What year? Something happened in 2001? I forgot. I assume I should redact Prince Andrew. Oh, no. Yeah, you could leave him in. Yeah. Wave goodbye. Ooh, cheerio. But if you release these in it and all the names are blacked out, aren't people still going to want answers? Yeah, we got some wagging the dog shit coming down the pipe. You know, bombing Iran, admitting there's aliens. Kidnapping a newscaster's mom. Hoy! I don't know if I could handle knowing all this stuff, sir. Like...

I'll be the only one who knows the truth about... You guys are going to kill me when I'm done, right? No. We're not going to kill anybody. You're going to shoot yourself twice in the head. Depression's a real bitch, Daniels. Yeah, so Zach Slingsby, you know, it's funny even as I was trying to decide which one of these that are a little racier to, you know, listen to, I was like, okay, I could imagine as someone who, I guess, I don't know if you feel like you're in charge of the editorial, you know, apparatus at King Jester but it's like okay do we feel good about this is this how do you all decide um like yes this is this is a joke worth making because does it need to have larger cultural value you know yeah what do you mean by cultural value um that it that it maybe helps people see um the the current uh you know news of the week or or what's going on you know, in a way maybe they hadn't looked at the situation? Yeah, I think that, I don't know that we're trying to do all that, but I think that... When we started out, we said, well, what if the South Park guys ran SNL? What would that look like? What if the South, the guys who created South Park? Ran SNL? That was a North Star. And their basic ethos is everything is on the table. Nothing is off limits. No sacred cows. Make fun of anybody for anything. And, you know, there's no through line of ideology. There's no trying to figure out, you know, no calculation involved. Is something mockable or not? And I think in the one you played, yeah, that went super viral. Obviously, that's a hot button and there's all kinds of... like their rails there. Right. You can step on. But I think the ambition, a good ambition to me is to try to go into the middle of the bomb and pull just the right wire. And I think that that's often what people find is missing from script and comedy now. So we're not trying to offend anybody by any stretch, but I don't think that you should not try. Even sometimes you hit the wrong wire and you maybe wish you didn't do that. Oh, interesting. But I think you should try. I think people should be trying to find out. How to make people laugh. I mean, comedy's tension, right? So much of great comedic writing is tension, and there's a release. And, you know, you can't get there without finding the real points of tension. Yeah. Well, it strikes me that what you're talking about, you do see right now, especially on social media, from stand-up comedy. Like the clips of stand-up seem to do that. Possibly too much, yeah. Right. But that maybe scripted comedy, can you find a way to really...

And you're hitting on exactly what our kind of point was. Like, if you at script, standup comedy is huge. Podcasting is huge. Huge. Two of the biggest for comedies, like comedians podcasts are some of the most popular ones on iTunes. And stand-up specials are just barreling at us. And these comedians are like rock stars now. But everybody's favorite scripted comedy is like 20 years old. and nobody can figure out why that's the case. And so what we're trying to do is just create this small little incubator to figure out what are the ideas worth developing a little more, what are the ones that are hitting, and how do we get them in the game? What do you think the value is of comedy, you know, kind of speaking into like a real polarized issue or moment? Well, I don't know, that's a big question. What do I think the value of comedy can be in that? Yeah, can be. I guess it can bring us, I hate to say that, but it can bring us together a little bit, maybe, and you realize, all right, this is absurd. We can all see that at least this part of it is absurd, even if we don't agree on whatever political candidates are running for whatever office. This one specific thing, let's all agree, that's crazy, right? Yeah. And I think that... I mean, I don't know if you know Tim Dillon or if you're a fan of his at all, but he does these monologues on everything going on. And his whole, he's coming from the point of this is, we're moving to the end of the American Empire. That's his, that's his big thing. It's like where this is all, we're all on the wind down phase. We've gone too far. We've grown too much. Everything is too good. We're all spoiled beyond belief. And it's going to be over very soon. Now it is, it is commonplace for someone to be speaking to their phone. in a place, they're talking to themselves, they're in the, they're in an aisle of a grocery store and you're holding up something and they're going, you gotta get these chips. These are the best. And you go, you know, what is this? What is this? What's happening here? And this is people's jobs. And that's basically all of his monologues come through that perspective. And that's not a partisan perspective. It's not an ideological perspective. It's just a constant mirror to the rest of the world. And I think there's something interesting in that from a comedy perspective because your lens is very clear. You know, you're unmotivated. I think for a while... We had so much motivated content coming from both sides from everywhere. And so I think to find something that's where you just say, we're looking for the excesses, we're looking for the absurdities, and that's going to be where we get our attention. I think that's the best one. Well, it's not so different from the way good journalists approach their work that they're really trying to report on something that... is not seen at all through a partisan view. Do you all find yourselves having what we have, which is almost like an editorial discussion? Totally, yeah. How does that shape what you've done? Well, it's also new, so I think we're still figuring this out. And 90% of what we put out is not going to have these...

these rails, these third rails, right? So it's just every once in our wheel like, oh, what you think is that going to, is that what we want to say or is there going to be perceived? More the conversation is, is there a perceived statement we didn't intend to make? Ooh. That's really the thing because you can read politics into everything. It is exhausting. Well, they're going to think you mean this and they're going to think you. Love Trump. Hey Trump. They're going to think you have it in for the feminist, whatever. So it's all these things that we're never intending. We're looking for the joke. We're looking for where is the joke? And a really good joke does touch on a human truth, the truth of a humanity, but not a truth of our, of a very temporal political system, something that's been an issue for the last few weeks. Like who cares? It's got no shelf life. It's not who's running for what obvious stuff does not matter. And so we're not, we're not trying to. put our finger anywhere on that scale, we're trying to avoid the perception of any kind of an interest in current events whatsoever outside of what it can do for a lap. Well, one little... I'm Blake Farmer. This is Nashville. Our guest is writer Zach Slingsby, who has written a new novel, also started King Jester doing scripted comedy for social media. So one of the... I don't know, it's like a four or five minute sketch... makes fun of the guys from the daily wire. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I guess if you see that that's happening. Oh, that's a great litmus test. This week, Ben explains common sense at the lunch table. That's what happens, okay? This is not a safe space. All right, when you sit down with me, you're going to expose yourself to a factual smackdown. Really? Again? And stands up to a pesky bully. Why did you tell Ms. Morgan I was late? Okay, let's say for the sake of the argument, the class starts at 1205. You walk into the classroom at 1208, making you roughly three minutes behind schedule. Here's my read. So if I thought, oh, this must mean they're ragging on this hyper conservative, you know, outlet, podcast outlet. But you like imagine Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh's high schoolers getting bullied. I think Tucker Carlson makes an appearance too. Yeah. And yet if you watch it, it's like I think you could be fans of theirs and also find it funny. It's so funny because we got accused both sides of that. We got accused of this is too, you're bashing on these guys. This is mean and you're just picking apart. And the other people were like, this is too, you're fanning out. It was a whatever, it's one of those Rochak tests where you just do, you see your politics in it. So we had no, that one, one of those clips went viral. And I know that I, someone told me that some of those guys saw it and laughed. And then other people. hated it just because they hate to hear those voice, those names even mentioned. So you can't really think about that. We just knew, honestly, we knew people that could do those impressions and someone pitched that he was very funny. Yeah, whoever does Matt Walsh's voice. That is a hilarious comedian Ami Kozak in New Jersey, I believe. Oh really? Yeah. And he's so funny. Yeah. He's got great impressions. He can do tons. Yeah. Well, what have you made really kind of around the same time you moved here?

We had, like, a lot of these conservative commentators and podcasters also moving here. I don't know if that's going to be an ongoing thing, but what do you make of it? That moved to Nashville at that time. Yeah, to Nashville. I can't think of any examples. I believe that it happened. Oh, I see. Because they weren't here, right. Yeah, they kind of relocated from L.A. and Ben Shapiro moved here, and I think there are a few other folks, and this kind of became their home base headquarters for Daily Wire. Yeah, it's... It's a nice place to live. It's not California. I think that people felt who maybe they felt weren't welcome there. I really can't comment on what they thought when they moved. Yeah, maybe they thought they weren't welcome in California. They moved here. How did you as a New Yorker view Nashville before you moved here? I didn't know anything about it. I came here for my bachelor party in 2015 for three nights and then never thought I would ever. Come back. So you don't hear that a lot. The bachelor party. The bachelor. And then, so that was over 10 years ago, 12 years ago, and then, or what, 11 years ago. And then somebody was telling us how so many creative filmmakers and stuff were living here and how it was becoming another hub, you know, in addition to the ones that we all know for some content stuff and checked it out. Well, is it, um... when you were kind of thinking of of places where you would would set up shop for your your content business did it just did it sort of check the boxes also of just like this is a place you could raise a family it's a totally yeah is that what yes because you've got I have a certain number of children. Five children, I think. So we wanted a place with a big backyard. We'd get in a car, go to a restaurant, do the things you can't do in New York and New Jersey is easily. Yeah. Yes, when I'm the few times in them in New York and I see someone with like three small children in tow trying to keep them out of traffic. I'm just like, oh my gosh. Yes. And it's raining. It's much better here. They love it. Everything about it's great. Well, what keeps you here? this is the life that we have here cannot you could not have in the other places that I've lived it's just it's all very accessible the production studio that we have that we now own I could never have we never do anything like that in New York it would take forever to build it would cost an absolute fortune we wouldn't be able to have afforded to buy it or the higher people we've hired for it The kind of talent I think we've gotten here would be much just harder to even coordinate with in New York. And then the lifestyle just coming in and out of the city so easily, the house, everything about it's just different in kind. So there would be nowhere that I'd be interested in moving. Well, what does your family think of it? I mean, what's your oldest child? She's nine. Nine. Why you have five under ten? Ten and ten every two years. Ten, eight, six, keep going, yeah. Well, that's a beautiful. Four girls and a boy. Is this feeling like home to them? I guess they haven't really known much else. They're Tennesseans. They're Southerners. What do you think of that? It's very strange. Are they talking funny? Not yet. My oldest daughter is starting to say y'all.

She's throwing some y'alls around. But no one in Franklin is really from here. So they're all just cosplaying Southerners. I don't know. I don't know where they're getting y'all from. They're all from L.A. and, you know, yeah. Do you feel like in the sort of suburbs of Nashville, that is what you end up feeling like. You're like, I'm not talking anybody here who, you know, is from rural Tennessee or something. Totally. What do you think? Do you live in the suburbs or in Nashville? I live within the city limits. Okay. I don't know what would make one. Am I making this up? Is it 90%? Transplants now? 85%. Is that a species? That would be a dangerous number to say aloud. This is Nashville. Maybe it's just because it comes up when I mention it. I try not to wear it on my sleeve that I'm from. Other people say, well, he's from here. And they'll say, oh, a unicorn. I mean, I think it was even said today. Sure, sure. I think, well, it doesn't seem that unusual. My siblings are also from here. No, you know, I must know too many people who are from here. Sure, sure. But yes, I think you're right that you're in some pockets, especially, let's say, quick growing suburbs that, yeah, you look around and you're like, nobody in the room's raising their hand as being from here. Have you felt at all that, let's say being from New York is something you have to almost explain or be like, you know, I hope you'll accept me. Or is it? non-issue the kids are they didn't bring their new york accent either they were born two of them were born in dc one of them was born in new jersey others were born here so there's no accents to speak all right um I have two questions for you when we come back. We need to take a quick break. But I'm going to ask you now so you have them on their mind. In other words, you kind of get a moment to think about this. All right. So one is if you could make a comedy video that only Nashvilleians would understand. what would it be, and who would you cast in it? Okay. And then I also want to ask you, this is, I have a friend who has a podcast named Patrick Chappelle, who just, he ends whenever he has a guest on from here with the same question, which is, if this is your last day in Nashville all time, where are you going? What are you doing? Oh, okay. Who do you want to make sure you see before you pull up stakes? Great. All right, Zach Slingsby will be with us. Those answers. I'm Blake Farmer. Stay with us.

I'm Blake Farmer, and this is Nashville. If you could make one comedy video that only Nashvilleians would understand what would it be and who would it cast? Who would we cast in it? That's a question for writer Zach Slingsby as we wrap up our time together here and then we'll get his take on what he'd do on his last day in Nashville. So Zach, you know, usually you get more than 90 seconds to come up with an idea. But yeah, if you... Something only Nashvilleians would understand because, you know, you're just five years deep in here. What would it be? So you've got to go with contrast, right? We're always looking for what is the contrast that makes something funny. Nashville is kind of we've been talking about, right? It's this old and new right up against each other. So I would look for a comedian. who's from here, and obviously Nate would be the most famous. Nate Burgatsy. Yeah, he's not going to return my call on this, but let's say, we're all we're dreaming here. He can return ours too. You're welcome to come anytime. Zach's seat is warm. I see his name all over. So the, what I would say is, The contrast of Oldenew Nashville, when people come here, they're really surprised my friends from New York or whatever. The, you know, coffee shops and Pilates studios and everything that's going on, how modernized. And in some ways, you can develop so much faster here than the other city. So it's happening even faster. Oh, yeah. This, like, you know, hybrid of, like, foodie culture and wellness and everything happens. So I would put, like, I would probably find a comedian like Nate. to be one of these LA transplants, even funnier if it's a woman, so maybe he's in a blonde wig, and he's playing the LA transplant woman who's shown up here and goes through, you know, her day is just stacked with just like Pilates, Machetee at the new spot downtown, cold plunge. you know, then meeting the girls. I would have him be the modern Nashville. Maybe the cold plunged in, hot yoga, and then, yeah. The modern Nashville, L.A. transplant, Nate, I think, would be a great vertical series, just him going through, you know, a typical day in Nashville. I love that. Well, I can't wait to see it, Nate. All right, so. You know, it's funny because we were doing an interview earlier. There were folks who'd been in Nashville for, you know, most of their lives talking about what they would miss if they were leaving. And so it's a question that hits a little different. But yeah, I imagine you already have the places in mind. Last day in Nashville, the family, we're not coming back.

Imagine this with me. And again, hat tip to Patrick Chappelle, who offers this question to some of his guests because it elicits such beautiful thoughts. But where would you go? What would you do? And who would you make sure to see before you leave for good? Okay, I'm going to weave in some of my own personal plugs into this answer, okay? So don't take it. Why not? Don't take it the wrong way. I would, I would, last day in Nashville, I'm going to spend most of it in Franklin, unfortunately, because we have special, Franklin is a very special place in our hearts. Well, let me say Nashville. Yeah, okay. We're talking about Middle Tennessee. The metropolis, yes. Just like when you're talking about New York, you're also talking about New Jersey. That's right. Of course. Okay. My, New Yorkers would hate to hear that. Oh, okay, bummer. My wife always says, creaks, taking kids to creeks in Nashville, and then Italian dinners are her favorite combination. What creek do you go to in Franklin? There's all these little pockets of nature in Franklin. And there's Harlinsdale Farm Park has this nice little creek in the back of it that runs throughout, you know, along the harpeth and you find little, it just has little channels where you can stop and play cars. There's nothing more Tennessee than like playing in the creek. It's great. There's all, there's one behind this big. church there's one at pinkerton park it's great so we we would spend a lot of time doing that um we would uh go to parnassus books in nashville ironically where i have a book signing august 3rd 630 p.m if anybody wants to come by buy a book and patch is beautiful bookstore parnassus well this is going to air after august 3rd oh my goodness you know clip this and we'll we'll get this out there so if you missed it go watch it online buy the book anyway but um So, and then, and then we would stop by our studio, Bungalow Studios, which is, as I mentioned, 10, 12 minutes from here. So we've got to say goodbye to the studio. While we're there, we'll see all the people doing podcasts and new media stuff there and new shows in the major studios. If anyone happens to want, any creators want to come by and check it out, they really should, Bungalow Studios in Nashville. And then we're going to go to a great dinner. We love Colicinos in Franklin. We love... Colichinos. That's the Italian place? Yeah. You know, maybe my wife and I put the kids down and we go out to dinner. But yeah, we're going to have a great family day, capped off for the great dinner. Well, I love the playing in the creek because this is not an answer I was prepared for. But I guess when one is raising five young children, one needs activities that everyone can enjoy. Yeah. Uh, not huge risk and, you know, uh, and it's free. Yeah. No cost. Exactly. Um, well, let me, let me just say, Zach Slingby, it's been a, it's been a pleasure to chat. And, uh, thank you so much. And best of luck with the book and with King Jester. Thanks, Blake. So it's really fun to talk with you. And I appreciate all the great questions and, and, uh, it's a lot of fun. Thank you. Before we go, I'm going to sneak in one more King Jester clip because it just hits too close to home. Here's the premise. The FBI has a new interrogation tactic for a terrorist, and that is to bring in the podcaster named Alex Cooper from a show called Daddy Gang. She can't interview him. She's the worst interview on YouTube. Hey, come on. She's not so bad. Imagine the pressure she's under. YouTube is so mental-dominated. Man, all she does is reading them damn no cards. And this shit agrees with everybody she has on. She never follows up. She asks all these questions. Zero follow-up. All right. Here you come. Shoot up, boys.

Miss Cooper, we are so glad you're here. The country owes you a debt of gratitude. Okay, slight. No, I literally love this. It's giving, like, sexy, forbidden kind of clandestine need-up, yeah. Listen, listen. The terrace is ready to tell you where the bombs are. So all we need you to do is go in there, ask that one question, and then leave. Okay, we love a control kingy, yeah? Don't worry about it. I've got this. Hi. Alex Cooper. Okay, love this like 2009 juicy track suit sleigh that's happening. But I actually need that chair because a big time terrorist is coming in that I'm going to interview for my pod. Hey guys. Is this a terrorist? You're telling me this is a terrorist. Um, we persist. Welcome back to call her daddy. I'm ready to tell everything. Yeah, amazing. Okay, today we're going to talk about terrorism. That's the work now coming out of Nashville from King Jester and our guest, Zach Slingsby. Thanks for tuning in this hour. This is Nashville as a production of Nashville Public Radio. We air these profile interviews most Mondays. If you missed Hal Cato and Michael Bircham last week, you missed one of our best. Hal has led nonprofits in Nashville since founding Hands-on Nashville out of college. Michael Bircham has become an entrepreneurial mentor after starting and selling multiple companies. We talk about their challenging upbringings, their love for each other, and how they see a booming city but a community that needs to be tended. Listen in our podcast feed or watch at YouTube.com slash at WPLN. Today's episode, produced by yours truly, live Lombardi, making a sound and look good. Tasha A.F. Limley's are managing editor. The masterminds behind our theme music are Laurent and Namir Blade. What would you do on your last day in Nashville? We've gotten great answers from our guests. Who are you going to go see? Where are you going? What would you do? Let us know at 615-7602,000. You can also direct message this show on Instagram. This is Nashville. I'm Blake Farmer. Go in peace.

Way back in 1952, the bronze mercury statue atop Union Station took a tumble. There's been a replacement up there for the past 30 years, and that prompted the question, The original, I'm wondering where it could be. Curious Nashville chases down the old bronze with some twists and turns along the way. Learn more and ask your question at WPLN.org forward slash curious.