Author Archives: davidleesimmons

Fly Movement Salon hosts benefit show Dec. 1 for Clay Mazing’s work with Syrian refugees

Posted on by under circus
(Photo courtesy Clowns Without Borders)
(Photo courtesy Clowns Without Borders)
(Photo courtesy Clowns Without Borders)
(Photo courtesy Clowns Without Borders)
(Photo courtesy Clowns Without Borders)
“If you’re in New Orleans you’re probably seeing more of the edgy Clay Mazing, the cowboy who’s cracking his whip, and with the flaming shotguns,” Clowns Without Borders’ Molly Levine says of Clay Mazing. “It’s fun crazy stuff. And when he is doing the Clowns Without Borders shows, he’s in character, but as a really child-friendly clown.” (Photo by Mike Shane)

Each month, New Orleans’ top circus and variety performers get together and showcase their latest works at the Fly Movement Salon over at Café Istanbul. But next week they’ll get a chance to showcase their work while supporting the very timely work of a fellow performer helping Syrian refugees.

Clay Mazing, known to some for his work at Cirque du Gras (which I covered here for NOLA.com) has taken his initial project work with the nonprofit group Clowns Without Borders in Greece and is continuing to perform with Syrian refugees as they continue on their journey. Right now he’s in Macedonia. And because now he’s supporting himself on the journey — working with his own troupe, the Emergency Circus — he needs some help, and his friends back in New Orleans are ready to go.

The next Fly Movement Salon, which will be held Tuesday (Dec. 1) at Café Istanbul, will feature performances by co-organizer Liza Rose (who I’ve also covered here) paired with Sarah Stardust, as well as David Chervony, Emily Chervony, Sami Smog and Golden Delicious, Penelope Little, and more to be announced soon.

Molly Levine, the director of the New York-based Clowns Without Borders, performed with Clay Mazing and a couple others during their project trip to the Greek island of Lesbos, which included 32 shows over 16 days for Syrian refugees who have already endured major hardship.

“If I could say one thing to my close friends, that I wish people would understand, is the sheer enormity of tis crisis,” Levine said. “The people who are arrive in Greece, these are middle-class people, they’re children, they’re old people, their families, and they’re coming knowing this is a dangerous trip for them. The choice for them in taking this trip often is between dying and maybe dying, and so they chose maybe dying, so they chose these trips.”

For Clay Mazing, it’s been an emotional and fulfilling journey.

“I feel so blessed to be following my dreams out here,” he said via message. “It’s obvious that people need this kind of empathy out here. When someone is starving and you offer an apple they take it hungrily. The same is true for people starving for joy. Some of these people (not just children) haven’t laughed in days because they are constantly moving through boats, tents, trains, and busses without knowing what’s next.

“It’s really this focused attention we give to them that they appreciate. The Red Cross and others give them blankets and tea but we provide some simple relief from the constant stress,” he continued. “And we all make instant friends. Tonight we all laughed and played music and danced around the fire. These friends are so damn full of love it’s insane. I don’t know how they keep it up honestly after being treated like cattle they offer their cookies and blankets to us.

“I’ve had so so many heartfelt hugs and deep eye contact thank-yous. There’s too much to say.”

(It should also be noted that Moniek de Leeuw of the Balcony Players also is performing, on violin, with Clay Mazing.)

(Related: Follow Clowns Without Borders’ project here)

Fly Movement Salon co-organizer Liza Rose has worked with Clay Mazing on several productions and sees him as a perfect fit for this kind of work.

“He is a delightful raconteur, a shameless ladies man, the penultimate poster boy for the Peter Pan complex … And he has, without a doubt, the shiniest heart of gold you’ll ever meet,” she said. “When he’s here, he spends a lot of his time arranging and performing shows for kids in hospitals, folks in nursing homes, at special needs schools, and wherever else it’s needed. As a sometimes guest performer with the Emergency Circus, I can tell you that it’s a special kind of thrill to bounce up in the Sh’zambulance (when stateside, the EC travels in a converted ambulance) and hear Clay on the megaphone saying, ‘It’s an Emergency Circus!'”

As for Clay Mazing’s work, Levine said, “He’s is a very special performer. He’s also really versatile. If you’re in New Orleans you’re probably seeing more of the edgy Clay Mazing, the cowboy who’s cracking his whip, and with the flaming shotguns. It’s fun crazy stuff.

“And when he is doing the Clowns Without Borders shows, he’s in character, but as a really child-friendly clown. He does comedy,” Levine added. “He does slapstick. He loves to perform with the charango (a lute-like string instrument). The reason that Clay is the best performer to be doing this tour for the refugees he’s performing for is because, when he’s going, he never stops. If there’s a kid nearby, he’s always on. We’ll do two, three, four shows in the morning and be wiped out and will be going to lunch, but if he sees some children, those fake teeth will come on, and he’s performing again.”

Liza Rose echoed those sentiments: “He is doing what we all wish we could do, what we all think about briefly right before we think, ‘… but what about all this other stuff that will be hard and all the things I have to give up…?’ Clay’s not thinking about that. He’s living in the moment and using his talents to make a real change in the world, human to human. He should be a national fucking ambassador.”

Visit the Fly Movement Salon’s Facebook event page for more info.

Francesca McKenzie, even when in school, makes a cool theater honor roll

Posted on by under theater
Francesca McKenzie in a publicity photo for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane.

Francesca McKenzie in a publicity photo for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane.

New Orleans theater audiences who might have wondered whatever happened to actress Francesca McKenzie received a pretty cool update when American Theatre named the San Francisco native one of its six theater figures to watch, in Role Call. Along the way, the article noted that McKenzie — a member of NOLA’s Cripple Creek Theatre and Goat in the Road Productions — is working on her MFA in theater at Yale University.

But even though she’s gone in the woodshed, McKenzie (whom I met when she sat in for a “StoryQuest” reading for kids at NOMA) clearly hasn’t gone unnoticed. As for what she’s up to:

She’s currently in her first year in the Yale School of Drama MFA acting program—and she brings a lot of experience with her. “I am excited to be challenged as an actor and have this time to focus solely on my craft,” she says. “If I had gone to grad school right out of undergrad I wouldn’t have known why. Since I’ve been making work in New Orleans I’m going into the experience with a clear sense of what kind of theatre I want to make.” She’s understudying a role in peerless at Yale Repertory Theatre this month and will be in Salt Pepper Ketchup at the Yale Cabaret in January 2016.

Here’s to McKenzie getting done as quickly as she can so she can back here and continue to help bring fresh young voices in the New Orleans theater scene. You’re gone for now, but definitely not forgotten. It’s clear, based on her comments to Role Call, she’s got vision: “I envision a national theatre landscape where all stories can take center. I want people of all skin colors, class brackets, and experiences in the audience, onstage, and on the production team.”

P.S. I saw another artist on this list, rocking cellist Ben Sollee, perform live in concert. Catch him if you can.

For Allen Toussaint, and his fans, the music was personal

Posted on by under music

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Every now and then, the New Orleans music community suffers a loss that goes even deeper than usual. When Allen Toussaint died at age 77 after a show in Spain, the loss reverberated around New Orleans and, really the rest of the world. It was so profound that, one could make the case it was the greatest loss since the passing of Louis Armstrong nearly 45 years ago. To name-check another great, it felt like we had lost our Cole Porter, for in Toussaint we lost a man who could make gritty New Orleans rhythm and blues, and its feisty child, funk, sound elegant and accessible to everyone.

That was Toussaint in real life: elegant, and accessible to everyone.

Which is why you didn’t even have to for wait entry into the Orpheum Theater on Friday (Nov. 20) for a sweet memory about Toussaint, even if there would be many shared in the tribute played out on the stage with a star-studded lineup and in front of a grieving family in the first few rows and grieving fans packed to the third-floor balcony. As we waited in line to get in — the doors opened at 8 a.m., but fans were queuing up well before 7:30 a.m. — fans stood in silence. Until they couldn’t. Right beside me, seemingly unprovoked, Maureen Morrow, a woman looking to be in her late 40s or early 50s spoke about how she’d seen Toussaint at the 1982 New Orleans Jazz Fest and, benefiting from one of his post-show customs of tossing out personal items, got to snag his songbook.

To her right, Annie Lousteau, graying and probably in her 60s, lit up, and reminisced about how, as an aspiring musician in her youth, sitting on Toussaint’s piano stool in his studio and strumming her guitar. He’d encouraged her to become a musician, she remembered, and she later pursued work in children’s musical theater.

Later, after Hurricane Katrina, Lousteau found herself stuck in her FEMA trailer, and music was her salvation as she tuned into WWOZ. “I was so depressed,” she remembered, before perking up and adding that the song “Everything I Do Gohn Be Funky” had “become my anthem.”

On the other side of Morrow, Mary Phelps, the only African American of the three, and perhaps in her early 70s, remembered waiting on Toussaint when she worked at the Bon Ton Café — “He always ordered the fried shrimp,” she insisted. Going way further back, she remembered watching Toussaint perform back in the early 1960s along with Irma Thomas, Margie Joseph and others at the Joy Tavern in Gert Town, Toussaint’s neighborhood. It was part of a weekly “college night.” “He was a great musician,” she said. “He played good music. Clean music. I don’t know what they call that stuff today.”

These personal moments echoed what New Orleanians had been saying throughout the past week, remembering musical and run-in moments with Toussaint, who was difficult to miss while moving about the community in his signature Rolls-Royces (he had two) and his natty, colorful attire. He seemed to love posing for fans — including me and my son, Eli, when we caught him passing by the City Park playground on his way over to Morning Call during Jazz Fest.

That was Toussaint: elegant and accessible — and generous. So his death was as personal to us as his music was to him. Those speaking and performing at the tribute bore that out. While this was clearly a delicate balance of a tribute and a funeral service — the actual burial was for Saturday — the mixing and matching of secular words and biblical references, of pop songs and gospel, wove its own spiritual quilt for the audience. Cyril Neville, accompanied by Davell Crawford, performed “Let’s Live,” with is line: “Why deprive yourself, of the wonders of life / Time is getting shorter, there’s no reason for those lonely nights / If you don’t, if you don’t love me, you’ll miss the boat.”

Mayor Mitch Landrieu reflected on Toussaint’s work with the New Orleans Artists Against Hunger and Homelessness, and evoked the social call of “Yes We Can Can” with its line, “Make this land a better land / In the world in which we live / And help each man be a better man /With the kindness that you give.” Deacon John Moore followed with a subtle, stirring version of “Any Day Now.”

There were other magical musical moments: Davell Crawford’s sweet, wistful “Southern Nights,” Irma Thomas’ “Walk Around Heaven All Day,” Boz Scaggs’ “What Do You Want the Girl to Do?” (backed by Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen), and so on. My personal favorite performance was arguably the least soulful moment, when Jimmy Buffett strode out in respectful but hipster black and performed a kind of deconstructive version of “Fortune Teller.” Buffett, never the world’s greatest vocalist, brought out all the mischief and cleverness of the lyrics, and accented certain moments of the ending (really, a punchline to a joke) — Now I’m a happy fellow / Well I’m married to the fortune teller / We’re happy as we can be / And I get my fortune told for free.” It was the accent on that last note, and a knowing grin by Buffett, that drew guffaws from the audience. “Ohhh, he had a sense of humor!” Buffett said, getting more chuckles.

But clearly this was day of deep, spiritual musical moments, including John Boutté’s gospel take on “All These Things,” and longtime reedman/sideman Brian “Breeze” Cayolle’s “Ave Maria, and Dr. John’s “Life” — but not without Mac’s typically offbeat comment by way of introduction that “this is off the hook and appropriated.”

While he promised there wouldn’t be a sermon, Michael Green, the pastor of the LifeGate Church, may have had the most apt description of Toussaint as an artist when he said, “Allen didn’t have a song; he was the song.”

It says something that a pastor trying not to sound too religious for a possibly more secular audience could have such a profound musical take on Toussaint, but that indicates the way his music reached into our hearts. You could hear it in remembrances from Joshua Feigenbaum (with whom Toussaint started the now-defunct NYNO Records label) and of course from Elvis Costello, who collaborated with Toussaint on the Grammy-nominated, post-Katrina album, 2006’s “The River in Reverse.”

Perhaps too choked up to perform himself, Costello nevertheless touched the audience with his reflections of a friendship cemented during Toussaint’s post-Katrina exile in New York City. Costello quoted “Freedom for the Stallion” with its memorable line, “They’ve got men building fences to keep other men out / Ignore him if he whispers and kill him if he shouts.”

“If Allen had anger about what happened 10 years ago,” Costello pointed out, “it was measured, always balanced with his belief that it would all come back. That music would restore the spirit of the place that he loved — from within, or without.”

The day ended in typical New Orleans music and funeral splendor, with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s version of “Yes We Can Can” (with Boutté on vocals) followed by the more somber “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” and then “I’ll Fly Away” in what amounted to an all-star jam of all who came before with Trombone Shorty thrown in for good measure. Pall-bearers carried the coffin, fashioned by Rhodes, out to waiting hearse with hundreds watching along the sidewalk and on the street.

How many of them out on the street had their own Allen Toussaint moment — on the stages at Jazz Fest, in the dusty music halls of the ’60s, in the New York clubs, or maybe even over at City Park catching a selfie?

Hopefully, those moments will help us get through the pain of losing one of the towering giants of New Orleans music. We can always go by his words, which rhetorically asked, “Why deprive yourself, of the wonders of life?”

Allen Toussaint tribute: A photo gallery

Posted on by under music

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UPDATE: For Allen Toussaint, and his fans, the music was personal (a reflection)

I’ll have more on the tribute to Allen Toussaint on Friday (Nov. 20) at the Orpheum Theater. It was an overwhelming experience fill with memories, music and emotion. Until then, here’s a photo gallery (with a few duplicates/extras), which I’ll tidy up with the post.

Enjoy.

PopSmart NOLA: Trixie Minx on giving back, with krewedelusion, to New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic

Posted on by under burlesque
Trixie Minx as the Bad Dentist.
Emcee Chris Lane
The bewitching Madame Mystere
Roxie LeRouge, quothing the Raven
Mystic Pony Aerial Troupe
Piper Marie as Beetlejuice
Kitty Kaos
Azazel von Satan and Xena Xeit-Geist

As one of New Orleans’ most popular burlesque producer-performers, Trixie Minx has been able to attain a special level of celebrity. We saw that most evident this year, when she was named Empress of the Insane for the Mardi Gras group krewedelusion, or even when she was recruited to be a celebrity judge during NOLA.com’s chicken-tasting competition.

With an engaging personality, she’s been able to leverage that celebrity to help others, most notably for her work (as empress) with the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic (NOMC), whose mission is to get affordable, comprehensive health care for vast community of New Orleans musicians. This will include “Splish Splash,” a party on Thursday, Dec. 3, at One Eyed Jacks. The party will feature DJ Rusty Lazer and Mermaids of Splish. There will be game booths, silent auction and, ahem, fish-kissing, all in service of the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic. (Laurie Herbert has been helping as a liaison between Trixie Minx and NOMC.) Members also can sign up for Musicians’ Clinic benefits. There will be a $10 cover for the 7 p.m. event; that cover also gets folks into the ’80s night dance party later that evening.

Minx’s monthly Fleur de Tease production returns for a Thanksgiving-themed show, “Burlesque Banquet,” on Sunday (Nov. 22) — with canned donations accepted for the Second Harvest Food Bank. (Performers will bring canned good to donate as well.) Presented by Trashy Diva and emceed by Chris Lane, performers include Ooops the Clown, Roxie LeRouge, Nikki Frisky, Madame Mystere, Natasha Fiore, Piper Marie, Mamie Dame and special guest performer Angela Eve of Chicago. Tickets are $25 for VIP reserved table seating, $15 general admission. For more info email info@fleurdetease.com, call 504.319.8917, or visit www.fleurdetease.com.

This isn’t the only way Trixie Minx gives back; she also noted in a recent podcast interview that she donates a free VIP table to a non-profit for each of her shows — usually by way of an auction item or raffle ticket. Enjoy debut of my new podcast, “PopSmart NOLA,” below, but also the photo gallery from last month’s Fleur de Tease Halloween show.

Discussing historic New Orleans theaters on local media (links)

Posted on by under tv radio

John McConnell The SpudcastAs noted previously, my article on the return (and future) of historic New Orleans theaters in the downtown area (and beyond) graces the November issue of Biz New Orleans. It’s an interesting look at the variety and viability of these beautiful theaters, each of whom can, if properly run, can fill a need in the New Orleans entertainment scene. There was a lot to talk about with this article, and so I did:

You can check out my appearance on WWNO’s (89.9 FM) “Inside the Arts” on Tuesday (Nov. 10), with Diane Mack.

You also can check out my appearance on John McConnell’s WLAE-TV show “The Spudcast,” which aired Wednesday (Nov. 11) but also repeats on Thursday at 2 p.m. and Saturday at 6 p.m. Here’s the YouTube clip below:

Jon Cleary: Allen Toussaint and the making of “Occapella” (podcast)

Posted on by under music

Screen+Shot+2015-06-23+at+9.16.42+PMUpon learning the news of Allen Toussaint’s passing on Nov. 10 at the age of 77, the first name that came to my mind was Jon Cleary, and not just because he is my favorite New Orleans piano player, or because I’d profiled him and the making of “Pin Your Spin” for Gambit Weekly back in 2004. It was, more appropriately, Cleary’s 2012 album, “Occapella,” a brilliant reimagining of some of Toussaint’s more popular (and some less popular) works.

Cleary is one of those special musicians who loves to deconstruct the creative and technical processes when he’s both making and discussing his work, and while he conceded early on that, basically, at the time he needed to put out some kind of record, and that friend John Scofield said tribute albums get easy media recognition, there was something special about digging into what made an Allen Toussaint song “work.””

Normally when I make a record I’m writing the songs as well, so there’s this other process where you’re agonizing over lyrics and arrangements, but the thing with Allan’s tunes is that the songs are good, the lyrics are good, and the arrangements have these key little signature things. My approach to it was identifying the most important elements, breaking the song down to its fundamentals and then building it back up again.

Hopefully I’ll have more of this interview, which also touched on Cleary’s general impressions on Toussaint’s musical legacy, but because he’s already said some of this, I thought it would be fun to hear his creative process on “Occapella” straight from his lips. Listen below.

Neil deGrasse Tyson: Interviewing the science guy, with a little help from my friends

Posted on by under Uncategorized
Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Thanks to all those who answered my query on Facebook to supply questions for Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson in advance of his two-night stand at the Saenger Theatre (Nov. 10-11). As you can tell from my feature in the New Orleans Advocate, as well as the “bonus content” of excerpts from the interview I posted earlier, he’s not a dull guy to interview.

So I thought it would also be fun to slap some of the “crowd-sourced” questions up as a podcast interview. As much as the more formal questions, these give the listener a window into the way he thinks — specifically, respectively, on ideas such as mentorship, the concept of time, and being one of the more popular subjects of memes on the Internet today.

Remembering Allen Toussaint on social media

Posted on by under music

Screen Shot 2015-11-10 at 7.15.48 AMWhile working in the previous gig, doing social media roundups was a regular thing, and sometimes felt a little bit like a reflexive thing. But as the tributes come pouring in on the news Tuesday (Nov. 10) of Allen Toussaint’s passing, I thought it appropriate to revive the practice here.

Why? Because it seemed like Allen Toussaint was everywhere, and, perhaps more important, gracious with everyone he met. In just this past year, around Mardi Gras and then around Jazz Fest (appropriately enough), I either saw and waved at Toussaint (in his vintage Rolls Royce, about to park and head inside Restaurant August) or convinced him to take a selfie with my son Eli as he was making his way from that Rolls to Morning Call in City Park.

I’m not alone. Everyone, it seems, has a photo of them taken with (or especially of) him, if Facebook is any indication this morning. Here are some of these and other memories I’ve pulled from social media. What’s also amazing is the range of video clips of his work that are pouring out, showing the breadth and depth of his talent.

Feel free to share you memories of him in the comments. One final memory, and it’s a deep one or anything, but I think the year was 2000, and my old boss Michael Tisserand at Gambit Weekly invited me as his plus one to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation’s gala. And Toussaint was the headliner. What a way to see him perform for the first time. I love to say how fun it is to see great music in gritty, homey nightclubs, but it seemed only fitting to watch Toussaint in a festive room, decked out in a tuxedo (as if he’d dress any differently for any other gig), and leisurely rolling through his vast catalogue. Brilliant stuff, and memorable.

Rest in peace to our own #AllenToussaint. He will be so missed. https://t.co/BleROFqzwK

Neil deGrasse Tyson interview: Bonus content edition

Posted on by under entertainment
Neil deGrasse Tyson
On “Late Show with Stephen Colbert”
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson with Seth MacFarlane on “StarTalk”

As I noted from the outset in my piece in Tuesday’s (Nov. 10) New Orleans Advocate feature, Neil deGrasse Tyson basically speaks (and thinks) at warp speed. In an interview that went double over our allotted time of 15 minutes, Tyson touched on a number of topics, and even fielded some crowd-sourced questions I’d solicited on Facebook. (More on that later.) But when not typing furiously (yes, this one needed to be recorded), it was fun to mentally to just sit back and listen to Tyson go.

We discussed his seamless blending of science and popular culture, in particular how it’s applied on his National Geographic show, “StarTalk,” which recently kicked off its second season:

“This is a way science reaches people that would not otherwise have come near it in the course of a day,” Tyson said. “We use the celebrity as an excuse to talk about the science that had mattered in their life,” he continued. “We use the celebrity as a pivot point on all the science that came up in the conversation.”

We also discussed his views on the way science is being taught in the classroom and how that might play out in the political arena (something he’s never shied away from discussing. But we also covered so much more. Here are some block comments that didn’t make the Advocate piece:

On the importance of liquid water as such a key piece to the puzzle of life on Mars: “There are two reasons. One is all life that we know on Earth requires liquid water for its survival. If we search the universe with that understandable bias, then we would be looking for liquid water as a key ingredient in life as we know it. L-A-W-K- … “LAWKI” it’s sometimes called. LAWKI, life as we know it. That’s one. Two, it may be required because for your body, for a vessel such as your body to communicate information from one place to another, nutrients, nourishments, energy, it needs some kind of fluid in order to do that, to accomplish it, and water is a very common fluid in the universe and it has interesting properties that enable it to do what it does very well. First it’s a bias, but second there are two other reasons that we think are cogent for why we might expect life elsewhere to have liquid water as one of its most important ingredients.”

On how crazy it is for an astrophysicist to be so popular: “It’s crazy. It’s completely crazy. Completely. I wake up every morning saying, “What the … ?” Every morning. No, I’m serious. I go to my Twitter stream … My Twitter’s at how many? Four and a half million? What? Don’t they know I’m an astrophysicist? There’s still time to back out if I can warn them of this. Did they do it by accident?” For me, it’s not just the Twitter stream or the TV show. I think what’s most stunning to me is the fact that I can go two nights in a major performance space. That I think is the biggest statement of the public’s appetite for the universe. Because to come to the theater, you’ve got to get off your ass and you have to travel to it and you have to pay money. Then you have to sit there, and you might be in the middle of a row and then you can’t go pee. There’s an overhead to coming to a theater that you don’t have if you’re sitting at home with your remote control or if you are reading a book or watching a documentary. On the occasions where I fill the house of thousands of people, because I forgot the capacity of this theater, but it’s a performance theater … I remember the transition. There was a transition from lecture halls, possibly be invited to a college campus, to city performance theaters. There’s a jump in attendance level, in audience level, between those two venues. Then, you don’t really find two thousand-seat lecture halls on university campuses. You can have several hundred, maybe a thousand, at most fifteen hundred, but it tops out there, really. The fact that there could be this many people that are that interested, times two, two nights in a row, I’m deeply enchanted by this fact. It redoubles my sense of duty in the service of the public’s curiosity and appetite for learning about our place in the universe.”

On why it’s important not to dumb down science while making it so accessible: “First, thanks for you noticing that, because I don’t make a big deal of saying that about it. It just is. I think it’s part of the empowerment of a listener that they see and hear the science as nature intended you to see and hear it, and so therefore you’re not left with some lesser version or lesser explanation than what is necessary to really understand what’s going on. That’s good, but also I personally happen to find the universe to be a hilarious place, so to the extent that I can share that enjoyment with the audience, that’s a plus. I’m also picky about what I’m sharing with you. There’s stuff that’s really, really boring. Why waste both of our times talking about it? I’m not curriculum-driven when I do the talk. There are some topics way more interesting than other topics. I’m going to pick the way more interesting topics that in my judgment are more interesting. Then I share it with you, the audience member. Yeah, it’s a remarkable fact, and I think it’s a sign that science is trending, an unmistakable sign that science is trending in the country and possibly the world.”

On whether he follows science-related issues as they might pertain to Louisiana, especially coastal erosion: “Not specifically Louisiana, but there’s … By the way, you can have erosion even if nothing else is changing in the world. The shape of coastlines, of beaches, is an ongoing sculpted phenomenon on Earth. The real challenge is, as you start losing ice sheets and then the water level rises, then it’s not so much erosion. Yes, it will erode, but you just simply lose your … Your coastline changes. The coastline moves inland. Is that erosion? No. You just lost your damn coastline. Erosion is, “Let me rub away at it so that it’s not there anymore.” That’s different from “Let me raise the sea level so that now everything that used to be your coastline is now under water.” Yeah, coastline is a major issue as the sea levels rise, because what used to be your coastline is no longer your coastline, will no longer be your coastline, and major cities that are on the water’s edge, be they a river’s edge or a lake edge or a gulf or the ocean, major cities in the history of our civilization that were forged, that were created on waterways for the purpose of commerce … In fact, it’s the opposite. There was commerce, and then they said, ‘Oh, this is a good place to put a city because all the commerce is happening here on the water’s edge.’ That is what will completely possibly take us by surprise as we are taken by storm.”

On the greatest value he gets out of interviewing such a diverse range of guests on “StarTalk”: “I like interviewing people where I don’t know anything about their expertise. Then I learn. I love learning stuff I don’t know every day. I think I’ve tweeted if a day goes by we don’t learn something, it’s a wasted day, in my humble opinion. You don’t have that many days alive, so why not make every day count, intellectually at least? Because then you get to keep it. You can go to the gym and have a sculpted body, but when you’re seventy or eighty are you still doing it? No. You hoped you would still have your mind by then, and you can still be a productive member of society.

“There are these science programs that we know work and we know have a following, but for ‘StarTalk,’ I and my fellow producers kept thinking there’s got to be a community of people who don’t know that they like science. They’re not going to tune into Science Friday because you tune in there knowing you like science. On top of this, there are people who know that they don’t like science. How do we reach them? Then it occurred to us, the way we do it is I become the host and my guest is just someone hewn from pop culture. That’s the only prerequisite, visibly and knowingly hewn from pop culture. My conversation with that person orbits all the ways science has mattered in that person’s life.”

Hopefully I’ll have one last little treat from the interview. Stay tuned.