The Point Radio: Janet Varney – So Much More Than KORRA

To a legion of LEGEND OF KORRA fans, Janet Varney IS Korra, but there’s so much more to this phenomenally talented lady. Her success checklist contains the legendary SF Sketchfest, YOU’RE THE WORST and of course her weekly JV CLUB podcast. We jump into it all in the first part of our interview. Then, take a good look at your friends or family and see if they have quirks which may result in MY STRANGE CRIMINAL ADDITION. Host, and addition specialist, Dr. Mike Dow, talks about what we will see on the Investigation Discovery series.

Next week marks our 7th anniversary and we’ll be back right here midweek to celebrate with you!

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Transcript

The Point Radio. It's Mike Raub from the Legend of Korra to the FS Sketchfest. So you're the worst and so much more. She's Janet Varney and she talks with us about how the magic works and how she keeps it all moving forward. Plus, do you have a strange criminal addiction?

Dr. Mike Dow is along to explain just what that means and how it all works out for the new Investigation Discovery series. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point. The Point Radio. Get The Point.

The Point Radio. She's the heart, soul and the voice of the Legend of Korra. And she's entertained us in everything from a number of Comedy Central shows, to riff tracks, to of course her own weekly podcast, The JV Club. She's Janet Varney and getting her to sit down and talk for a minute wasn't an easy task. But what I did, the first thing I wanted to tackle was her lifelong ambition to be in show business.

As a young girl, was she always the funny, quirky one in the crowd? I don't know that I thought of myself as the funny kid in terms of performing. I feel like I have really weird, funny, great parents. My dad was, he retired, but he was an English teacher, like a contemporary writing teacher. He also writes books about ghost towns and mining camps.

And he used to do these tours where he would take people. And they're like legit. He wouldn't go to the places that are sort of, like tombstone is really kind of turned into a commercial enterprise. He would take people out to the back roads. He had access to places no one had seen.

And he would have these great engaging tours and stuff that I used to go with him. And so I think I really got the performer bug from him kind of inadvertently. And it took its shape in theater. And I loved funny stuff. And that's what I gravitated towards in terms of the movies that I loved and the TV shows that I loved.

But I think somewhere along the line I got this idea that acting was very serious. And so I thought I was going to be like a serious actor. And so I didn't really do funny stuff. And it wasn't until after college that some friends of mine from the theater department at SF State said, we were putting together a sketch comedy group.

And I actually said, I don't do that. I've never done that. And I was like, but you're funny. You're like a big goof. What are you? And I said, I wouldn't know how to, you know, I don't know.

And they said, just come. There aren't that many girls who are willing to do this. Just come and play with us and improvise and maybe we'll start writing. And that was really the first time I kind of got quote unquote serious about it. But even then I was working and living in San Francisco in my very early 20s.

And I didn't think I would turn into a career. I had already completely abandoned the idea of being a performer. So I had this weird, I have this kind of funny life where if I see someone that I haven't seen since, you know, sophomore year in high school, they say, I knew it. This is what you always were going to end up doing.

And you know, you did it. And I feel like I have to say, well, there's a huge asterisk there. Where it's like a 10 year span that kind of not really, you know, so it came back around in a really weird way. But now it feels like when you look back, of course, with retrospect, you're like, oh, I guess all of these things kind of stitched together to create this future that I didn't really see back then. There's no doubt that Janet's weekly podcast, the JV Club, is one of the best and one of the most popular too.

She's got the downloads to prove it. But I was curious taking on a task like this when she did was kind of a gamble. So why did she initially take the risk? I have to be honest and say that I had started getting asked to do, comedian friends of mine had podcasts. None of them were ever girls.

I never got asked to do a girls podcast. And then I started to think, are there girls podcasts? Of course there are. And there were. In comedy, not so much.

Now more, for sure, which is great. But I started to feel like there was an actual dearth, you know, supply of kind of women's perspectives in podcasting. And one of my favorite things to get asked to do with Jimmy Pardo's Never Not Funny podcast, and he was one of the very, very first. I think he and Mark Maron were kind of the best comedy podcasters.

And it was such a pleasure and it was such an interesting vibe to listen to in your car. I was never a big radio listener in that way. I didn't listen to talk radio. I mean, I would listen to NPR, but not chat and talk and stuff. And so I was one of those people who, like many of us, started realizing that I was more in the mood to listen to people chatting and laughing or talking about something in the car than listening to music.

And I kind of just started thinking, you know, I really couldn't sound any more corny. I really like people. I am a people person. You know, I have a lot of friends who are, you know, have a couple close friends that they're maybe a little socially reserved. And I'm not even like a social butterfly.

I don't even really like going to parties. I really like connecting to people about, you know, real stuff. And Starley Kine, who's contributed to this American life, was doing this lecture series. I knew why we would get along so when we finally met, where she was saying to people, like, I think we should just cut the bullshit and just get to the bottom of stuff with people.

How fast can you have a meaningful conversation with someone that you've just met? And I had already been doing my podcast for a year when I heard that old This American Life. And I thought, that's how I feel. I feel like I'm so passionate about our humanity and I'm so interested in what strings us all together. I would rather feel a part of that than not.

And that's kind of where the germ of my podcast idea came from, was, you know, I'm not hearing a lot of women. I'm not hearing about a lot of women. I'm in an environment, in an industry that makes it easy to, I think, camp that stuff down and present this front of invulnerability. And I feel like I can do that if I have to go into an audition room.

But I'm not interested in having a 14-year-old girl think I'm invincible. I think she needs to know that I'm extremely vulnerable. I'm still figuring it out. That never stops. And that's all still okay and exciting and fun.

We've got a lot more to cover with Janet, including Legend of Korra, and of course, you're the worst. And we'll be doing that coming up. The fight, radio. Naughty and nice, it's all here. Here's the latest in pop culture.

Hulu has grabbed another package of some pretty popular shows to add to their menu, and that includes stuff from 20th Century Fox and a multi-year agreement from FX and FXX. They'll pick up the exclusive rights to the strain, tyrant, married, and you're the worst. They'll also have some other series on a non-exclusive basis, like Sons of Anarchy, American Horror Story, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Louie, Archer, The League, and Wilford.

These will all start early in 2015. Set your calendars for the return of Orphan Black, Season 3, is set to return to BBC America in early 2015. Well, maybe not necessarily as early as we hoped. It'll premiere on the network on Saturday, April 18th. And again, it's on BBC America.

IDW is Breathing New Life into David Cronenberg's classic science fiction horror films, The Fly. That'll begin with a new miniseries that'll debut in March. It'll be five issues based on the 1986 Cronenberg film, which in turn was based loosely on a 1957 short story, which was also based on a 1958 film. The series will also pick up after the end of the last film, and again, IDW plans on having that in comic stores in March.

Comic bookstore cash registers saw a big success story in November for both Marvel and for Image. Spider-Man titles certainly cleaned up on the comic racks, and in the graphic novel area, Image had a big push that put it well ahead of where it's been, well, for almost a couple of decades. Overall, gross comic sales were up as well when compared to 2013, and it looks good for the end of the year too as well. We'll check the entire sales figures, give you your top ten best-selling graphic novels and comics too for November coming up.

NBC has already launched a new online service that'll give you a live stream to most of their programming from the local stations as well as the network. Right now it's available just for desktop computers, however, it'll be available for mobile devices sometime right around the beginning of the new year, and look for a big push too with a campaign called Watch TV without the TV coming from NBC. Looks like the new spin-off for The Walking Dead takes place in Hollywood of all places. She had to be confirmed officially by AMC or by any of the folks associated with the series, however, it seems to be a pretty solid rumor as well.

The pilots are being shot early in the new year, and the series should debut sometime in 2015 as well. In addition to having a new role-playing game based on the series, Vikings is returning to the History Channel with the new season. Season 3 of the series begins on February 19th with 10 new episodes. The Golden Glider is coming to the Flash TV series and it should be portrayed by actress Peyton List most recently from the Tomorrow People series on the CW. That episode will also involve Captain Cold in a return from him, and it all takes place on one of the first new episodes of The Flash when it returns from its winter break on the CW early in January.

Spider-Man was the big hero behind the cash registers in comic book stores in November. The Spider-Verse series, which also kicked off in Amazing Spider-Man number 9, did a huge boost for Marvel, making it, of course, the number one best-selling company for the month with 34.88%, almost 35% of the marketplace. And more importantly, an almost shutout when it came to the top 10 comics for the month. Overall, comic sales were up over 8% where they were in November of 2013, and for the year so far, we're up about 4%, almost 5 when compared to last year. Top 10 best-selling comics in comic stores in November started at number 10 with Justice League number 36 from DC.

Avengers in X-Men X is number 5, comes at number 9. Avengers in X-Men X is number 4, comes at number 8. Superior Iron Man number 1 is the number 7th best-selling book. Thor number 2 is at number 6. Spider-Woman number 1 is at number 5. Amazing Spider-Man number 10 comes at number 4. The second DC title on the list comes at number 3, that's Batman number 36. All-new Captain America number 1 was the second best-selling comic and at the top of the list, like we said, Amazing Spider-Man number 9 from Marvel. The point, the point.

Yeah, so what's really interesting on this show is that all of these people have been arrested multiple times, incarcerated, so they have a wide variety of diagnoses. You know, some of them have a fetish, some of them have obsessive-compulsive disorders, some of them have an eating disorder, but what makes them all the same is that they are absolutely addicted, powerless, they just can't stop doing whatever it is they're doing, whether it's drinking urine or breaking the houses to steal dirty diapers to wear or even just shoplifting food to binge eat and then binge and purge. So the thing that they all have in common is that they've all been arrested multiple times on parole, incarcerated, so it really is sort of the worst case scenario and the most extreme cases in the country. I asked Mike to tell me about some of the more unusual ones he's encountered. Fair warning, this is not necessarily something you want to hear while you're eating.

So one of the ones everyone is talking about is the urine drinker. So this guy has OCD with delusional beliefs, so you know, OCD doesn't always have delusional beliefs, sometimes it does, and this guy actually has them. He believes that unless he drinks the urine of children that he will die. So this started off as a child and he just happened to be playing outside with a, you know, a childhood friend. He peed in some sort of a cup or something and he drank his friend's urine later and he, you know, and he was eight or nine at the time. Well, fast forward, the guy's now 50, he still has this delusional belief and he is now breaking into restrooms, creating these elaborate plumbing schemes to collect the urine of children. When the children leave the restroom, he goes in and harvests the urine, drinking gallons and gallons to the point of being hospitalized because he is so dehydrated and all he likes to drink is urine.

I mean, it really is sort of this sensational case that, you know, frankly, grosses a lot of people out when they see it. But, you know, I think on the show you're also going to have some understanding with a little compassion of what really makes these people pick. So how do we catch these early on? Are there telltale signs that friends or family can look for? You know, I think it's that thing where people tell themselves, oh, I could stop smoking at any time. I'm just not ready yet. It's like, you know, if you could stop smoking any time, you probably would have done it already.

So I think that statement really points to the powerless nature and how addiction does tend to spiral out of control. So especially with the new year approaching, if there's something that you're doing in your life that you know you should stop doing, whether it's eating too much and you're putting yourself at risk for heart disease, I wrote a book called, Diet Rehab, about food addiction and how to break that. Maybe it's about smoking. Maybe it's about, you know, entering into a string of bad relationships. And you know you are choosing the same kind of person. And yet you're still doing the same thing to yourself. You really got to ask yourself, you know, what can I change in this new year and how do I get the tools, whether that's professional help, whether it's quitting on my own, whether it's medication, that is going to help me to take control over my life once and for all.

So of all the avenues in medicine, why did Mike decide to become an addiction specialist? You know, I think it's more that addiction, you know, in my practice found me, you know, here practicing in Los Angeles Beverly Hills. I found that people, you know, were coming to me for a wide variety of problems. But you know, these strange addictions, I'm not talking drugs and alcohol. I'm talking about other things. You know, I just, I found how common it is for people to come in and, you know, I'm treating this successful attorney who has trichotillomania and she can't stop pulling out her hair or, you know, these people who are food addicts and they have these little rituals around food. I think I discovered in my practice just how common it was to have these strange addictions.

So I think it really led me to actually, you know, write about it, to, you know, obviously go out and do more research and to take part in shows like this where we're actually finding these things. Finding the worst cases in the country. And it just, you know, really shed some light on just how common addiction is in our society. My Strange Criminal Addiction, new episodes every Monday on Investigation Discovery. And catch up on some recent episodes right now at investigationdiscovery.com. That's it for the podcast right now, but we're back one full time during Christmas week. Got to be because it is our anniversary and we kick off year seven all in the same good places like ComicMix.com, michaeldavisworld.com, getthepointradio.com, and in the iTunes podcast directory as well.

Of course, you can follow us 24 seven on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram under the point radio. Have a busy weekend. You know, it's going to be, we'll see you back here in a few days. Thanks for watching.