Hoff Matthews will be performing at Difficult to Name on Saturday, October 14.
You host my favorite podcast, #1s. How did you come up with the idea for the podcast?
I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of really popular things that I knew next to nothing about—TV shows like NCIS, or books like Janet Evanovich crime thrillers. So I wanted to explore that stuff and get a working understanding of American pop culture outside my own bubble. I think a lot of pop culture is commentary is really selective in the sense of either focusing on things that the reviewer strongly identifies with or picking out lame low-hanging fruit to dunk on, and I thought it would be a fun challenge to choose subject matter based on its popularity rather than how comfortable I already was with my feelings towards it.
Who's your dream guest for the podcast?
Hmmm. I’m going to say the late Bill Gaines, the original publisher of MAD magazine. I think it would be interesting to talk with him about MAD’s approach of commenting on pop culture by indiscriminately attacking everything. I took that sensibility for granted as a kid and I don’t know if it warped me or if I’ve been more warped since I moved away from it.
You previously ran one of my favorite NYC events, Hoff's Horrorfest, in which a comedian performed and then you screened a horror film. It's almost Halloween. What's your favorite scary movie?
Probably John Carpenter’s Halloween, but that’s a boring answer so I’ll also add that Lamberto Bava’s Demons (the first movie I showed at Hoff’s Horrorfest) may be the most fun scary movie ever made.
What can people expect from your performance?
Shorter jokes than usual.