The Point Radio: HALT AND CATCH FIRE Ablaze Again
AMC’s 80s computer drama, HALT AND CATCH FIRE, is back for a new season and Mackenzie Davis is here to talk about how her character has a big challenge ahead. Plus he is called one of the most original comics of our time. Michael Blackson is the African King Of Comedy, but how did he get it all started?
We’re back at the start of the week with a look at UNREAL, the new drama that blows the lid off what really goes on with reality TV.
Transcript
The Point Radio. Hey, it's Mike Raub. AMC's Hall to Catch Fire is rolling in for a second season, and actress Mackenzie Davis shares what we can expect and exactly what her character is truly all about.
Plus, he's been called one of the most original comics on the road today. He's Michael Blackson, the African king of comedy. And we talk about just that moment in time where he became funny. Let's give it a point. This is The Point.
The Point Radio. Get The Point Radio. AMC's 80's computer drama, Hall to Catch Fire, is rolling into its second season. I sat down with actress Mackenzie Davis, who plays Cameron Howe in the series, to talk about where things left off and where they're headed this season.
I believe we're feeling the different stuff in the first. The first season was about the transition of a software company to producing, to getting to the personal computer market. And the whole arc of the first season was sort of the journey of these three people, Joe McMillan, who's pretty violently paid,
to McMerry's character Gordon, and my character Cameron Howe, building this computer that they were going to launch on the market. And the first season ended with a more fractured version of that scene than we anticipated. And the second season starts with Cameron starting her own sort of
proto-internet mail order of James' company. And she's taken Gordon's wife, Donna, as her fellow, like, de facto leader, even though she has proclaimed that she wants to have a hierarchy-less company. And, yeah, the second season deals with a lot of figuring out the struggle between the ideals of having a egalitarian, like, meritocracy at her company,
and then the reality that you need to have a leader and you need to survive, and somebody who's the one that people can ask questions of. And, yeah, that's it before we start. The second season… Mackenzie's character Cameron has always been a rebel, but this season, even more.
So, yeah, I mean, I think she's never… I think she's enjoyed the dynamic of somebody she didn't necessarily respect, being her boss and being a rebel against that thing. And now she's in an environment where she is the boss, and the only person she'll rebel against is the other people that she works with,
alienating them or herself, which would sort of damage the company. She is really trying to figure out how to be a human being who is occasionally empathetic and sometimes generous, and, yeah, just figuring out what it means to be a human heart, because I think she got rated fully under her own rules for a long time.
Another big part of this season is Cameron's relationship with computer program genius turned housewife Donna. We talked a little bit about that and exactly why the two are attracted to one another. I honestly think it's just for start. I think that Cameron can produce herself the smartest person in any room,
and I think she's usually right. And I think Donna is one of the few people that didn't try to, but really earned her respect by being the smartest person in many rooms as well. I don't know. I mean, I think a real…
a very important relationship develops between them, but I… I don't know. I think there's many people that Cameron would bow down to in deference, and not to say that she's busy with Donna, but I think that Donna's a contender, and she saw that from the beginning and wanted her to do whatever company.
As far as her sisterhood goes, that's not how I would describe their relationship. It's a little more fraught than that. I guess it's like a damage to a different thing. We don't really know a lot about Cameron's background, but that hasn't stopped Mackenzie from building one of her own
to make the character that much more interesting. I think that with all the characters, she has the sort of… even Joe, who's quoted mystery, is of his past, and there's nothing that's given to the audience about Cameron. And so I have done a lot of imagining for myself where she gets from,
and I know the relationships in her life that don't make it onto the screen, and all the sort of stuff that she's dealing with off camera. And the writers have given me lots of clues, and then there's funding concepts that are not in line with what I've heard. I think that the nature of the kids, you're not going to be in control
of the entire narrative. You don't have all the public pieces, and you just try and create things that make sense for the children, so they're grounded with paths. Who are as long as that path can be their reality, so the need for the information goes,
oh, okay, she brought the left off. Now we'll be able to do that. As we said, the show is set in the 80s, so I guess that makes it kind of a period piece with some interesting clothing choices and certainly some great music as well. So what drew Mackenzie to this role?
From era-specific, it was more just… I really appreciate… She wasn't written as a woman first. She was written as a genius person, as a volatile person, and as a complicated person with a lot of mysteries that I had to figure out about her.
But I think before I started playing the character, and then now that I've played her for two seasons, the issue of Cameron's gender almost never comes up in what she's exposed to a world outside of her own making, and then it's just like a stark reminder that that could be the first impression of her rather than her mind.
I just wanted to play a character who wasn't predicated on whether or not she was a female. AMC's Haul to Catch Fire began new episodes this weekend, Sundays on AMC, and you can catch up on more, including the first season right now at AMC.com. The flight radio… No big surprise here, plenty to catch up on in the latest in pop culture.
From a simple meme to Facebook to Reddit and well now to comics, Dynamite has announced a relationship with Grumpy Cat, publishing a brand new hardcover graphic novel in time for the holiday season, and a new website featuring material that will be called Grumpy Cat Comic Strips. The move to comics seems like a natural one considering the fact that Grumpy has some pretty big numbers when it comes to the internet.
Her Facebook fans run about 7.6 million, and the YouTube video views have topped 31 million. Some box office records were set over the Memorial Day weekend, but not necessarily the good ones. In fact, it was the first time in 20 years that no film topped $40 million in the box office over the long holiday weekend. It was a weak time in the theaters, with Tomorrowland disappointing at only 32 million, and even with the power of Pitch Perfect, Mad Max, and Avengers Age of Ultron.
The box office still was weak when compared to last year or even as we said in the past 20 years. Last time ticket sales were this week over the Memorial Day weekend was 1995. On a positive note, Avengers Age of Ultron crossed a $40 million threshold here in the US, the first film to do so since Hunger Games catching fire and Frozen, and is well on the way to earning of course the billion dollars it's expected when you combine it with worldwide ticket sales.
It'll be a Bill Murray Christmas, at least on Netflix this year, with something called A Very Murray Christmas as an original piece, directed by Sofia Coppola and written by Mitch Glaser, and featuring George Clooney, Amy Poehler, Michael Cera, Chris Rock, and many others as well, all in a story that takes place at Bill Murray's Christmas party. Expected to be released on Netflix in time for the holiday season. FX is back in business with Kurt Sutter. They've given a first season order to his series Bastard Executioner,
after pilot production wrapped a couple of weeks back. A spokesperson said that the network is proud to get Kurt's work back on the air so soon after the completion of the successful run of Sons of Anarchy. Are you going to Orange Con? Just ahead of the new season of Orange is the New Black, which premieres on the 12th of June. Netflix has an invitation only fan event in New York City. Stars of the show and so much more. If you want to get full details, maybe get an invitation too.
We've got a video posted for you right now at GetThePointRadio.com. Deadbeat is headed back to Hulu for a third season of the 13 new episodes, again with star Tyler Labine as well. They'll premiere sometime more than likely the end of this year or early next year as well on the streaming service. Add one more to the list of reboots. This time it's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Fox is doing a brand new version which will have no connection to the 2003 film.
That film did pretty good, about $178 million worldwide as well. And of course, the property remains strong in comic book stores with the recent graphic novel Nemo River of Ghosts and pretty much the top of the charts as graphic novel sales went over the past couple of months. There was talk of a TV series for Fox, but that apparently has been way late for the movie, which more than likely will get fast-tracked by the end of this year.
The point, the point. Comedian Michael Blackson has been called one of the most original comics in the country, traveling around the globe entertaining audiences as the African King of Comedy. We talked about his career, especially the early days, and when he actually knew he could be funny. Oh man, with early 90s actually, I was working, I was delivering pizza to Domino's Pizza, you know, this after high school.
In fact, I deliver pizza to Domino's during my 11th and 12th grade, you know, at my part-time job. And, you know, I guess at work I would crack a couple of jokes here and there. You know, mine was originally from West Africa, you know, and when I first came to America, you know, kids just made fun of me all the time, you know. And then I guess I just, you know, decided to just flip it around with take those things that said about me and make jokes about it.
And I remember working at Domino's Pizza in the early 90s, one of my co-workers, he was an acting coach at a nearby community college, and he delivered pieces part-time. And he just thought I was the funniest guy in the world. He thought, you know, this is something about you that's funny, so you should take this to the stage. And then he helped me write my first five minutes of material, and I'm going on stage and, you know,
trying this out for the first time, you know, did like a five-minute bit, and it went pretty well before last. You know, strangers that I didn't know, usually, you know, you just tell a joke among your friends, and when you vote in front of people that don't know you and you make them laugh, you know, it's like an adrenaline feeling that you get out of there. So that's pretty much what started it for me, and I started to go to Open Mic every week and started developing my act.
And, you know, years later, here I am, this is the full-time job for me, and I make a great living from that. The whole country, the whole world, actually, got to perform everywhere from Africa to Europe to the Caribbean. And, of course, the custom country of the United States. So it's pretty decent, and I'm enjoying myself right now. When it comes to inspiration, there's only one name for Michael, and that one is Eddie Murphy.
First stand-up special I ever watched was Eddie Murphy, and I'm making a joke about Africa, you know, and that's where I'm from, because I was born in West Africa, came to the States, like I said, during my teenage years. So, you know, for God to make fun of my people, you know, I just found it interesting. I started just going and Googling, we didn't have Google back then, but, you know, you're going to the DVD store back there and ask for movies, ask for anything Eddie Murphy in it, and they started, you know, and I started just watching Eddie, you know,
and then, of course, I did not lies, and Del Rio cops wanted to look great, and I just thought he was just the funniest guy in the world, you know, and he pretty much inspired me to go on stage and just, you know, you can just do anything and say whatever you want to say, you know, and he definitely gave me that feeling of just being yourself, you know, of not sharing what people are saying and just saying anything. I think that's where America like, America like those who are not afraid to speak their mind, you know, and I got that part of my stand up. I got that, you know, from Eddie, of course, because I kind of missed the Richard Pryor era when I came to America with the prior wasn't doing as much stand up back then,
if any at all. He was pretty much a movie star at that point, you know, but as far as the stand up, Eddie pretty much took over from Richard Pryor and just, you know, he became my guy. At one particular point in his career, Michael decided to stop telling jokes and to talk about his background, especially his African heritage. I asked him how that all came about. It took about three years, and I think that's the turning point in a comedian's life. It takes a couple of years for you to really know about what you want to talk about. You know, the first the first time I went on stage, you know, I pretty much, you know, just made fun of myself, you know, and I really scream I'm on stage and I just opened my arms and I said, I'm like, strange, really? You know, I just pretty much make fun of my media itself, you know, and then he wasn't really going anywhere, you know, and I was like, I did it three years later for some reason I was doing a show one and I image and I know that I also go on stage and just talk like I talk now.
And then three years later, I'm all going on stage and I just started to try some new stuff and I imitated like an uncle of mine in Africa and I brought out his accent, you know, so and every joke I said with the accent was hilarious. Even if we just love the accent, I'm like, you know, she bring us a light and now she just like I just came from Africa today. Let me bring the accent out completely throughout my whole act and then put on the African God, you know, so the spelling of me put the clothes on and that's right. And that's right. I threw on my accent in Daishi G and I went on stage with my accent from day on and everything I said was funny. So I did that for like the next 15 years, you know, and that's what took me to the next level. That's how I got up came here on the movie next Friday and I got to, you know, do the Deaf comedy jam, the BET comedy and all those different stand up shows that were back then, you know, in the early 2000s and late 90s. And that's when I got to the next level.
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