WEBVTT - Iris Smyles Is Trying to Be a Human Again 0:00:02.080 --> 0:00:05.280 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing, 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:10.320 My chance to talk with artists, policymakers and performers, to 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:14.520 hear their stories, What inspires their creations, what decisions change 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:20.480 their careers, what relationships influenced their work. A new book 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:25.599 called Dating Tips for the Unemployed follows its hero Irish Smiles, 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:29.360 as she haplessly meanders through New York City looking for 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:33.519 love and work, and then finding darkly humorous ways to 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:37.280 sabotage that love and work. The book's author is also 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:41.360 named Irish Smiles. She's earned her reputation as a wickedly 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:47.080 funny chronicler of disaffection, family dysfunction, and self loathing. Smiles 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:51.960 was precocious from a very early age, with highbrow literary tastes. 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:54.680 In the fifth grade, although she found her love for 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:59.400 the classics via an unexpected inspiration. There were these cartoons 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:02.639 of Mr Magoo and it was like Mr Magoo does 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:06.320 the Classics. And there was one adaptation of Moby Dick 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:10.560 where Mr Magoo plays Ishmael, the lone survivor of the Peaquad, 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:14.440 who in this case is is seventy year old man 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:18.160 got blind. And this blind deaf millionaire. He's the only one. 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:21.080 He's the only one who survives. Anyway, I was so 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:23.760 taken with it. I was in fifth grade. So I 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:25.920 went to the library and got the book and I 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.000 was trying to read that, and then my um my 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:32.040 school teacher saw the book on my desk and started 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:34.760 laughing at me, which I thought there was a gentler 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:36.920 way to suggest that maybe it was a bit advanced. 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:40.200 But I showed him where did you grow up? With 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:42.880 town in di Cell's Long Island, So that was very 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:44.640 was a very wooded back then. Because you said you'd 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.560 like to quote go around and climb trees, It wasn't 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.760 really that wooded, but I found the trees and those 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:55.400 I climbed Um, all three trees that block, you climbed them. 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:57.480 It was somewhat I mean, there were trees around. It 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:02.800 was a suburb Um but also Dix Hills. Interesting it 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:06.480 is where John Coltrane went to die. Um. I found 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:08.040 that out recently. I'm not sure why he went to 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:13.400 the no but also and also it's near Um. Speaking 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:16.520 of literature, I grew up on Ibsen Court, which all 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:19.920 the streets on my block were named after authors, but 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:21.960 no one knew, because I think the planners of the 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:24.280 town had these like high hopes for the people who 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:26.400 would move in, and instead it was just all of us, 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:31.320 and it was more mall culture. So um, they thought 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:33.200 it would be like a bunch of literary right. So, 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:35.359 for example, I grew up near the Walt Whitman Mall 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:39.440 because Walt Whitman's birthplaces in Melville. But no one knew 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:41.880 that Walt Whitman was a poet. So when it came 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:45.720 time to learn about Walt Whitman in in high school, 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:47.680 everyone was like, Oh, this guy is named after our mall, 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:54.400 he must not be that bad. Your parents super brainiac people, 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:58.320 are they like reading all the time and playing opera 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:02.600 in the house. And you've been a very culture cultural No, um, no, 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:07.000 culture culture. No, actually that's not true. Well, my parents 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:09.400 were working so much when I was growing up. You 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:12.640 have siblings. I have two older brothers, so you have 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:15.680 two older brothers and than you. Yes, but my father 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:18.040 was a big reader and so but we didn't have 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:20.520 any books in the house because why buy them when 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.240 you could borrow them from the library. So in the 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:25.880 summertime we would go to the library and like get 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:28.200 a whole bunch of books on long loan, and then 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:30.280 we would take them with us to Greece, where my 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:33.119 mother is from, and read them over there and get 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:35.640 them ruined on the beach, which always excited me because 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:37.480 I thought I'm going to bring the books. I brought 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:40.160 the books back ruined, but I thought I was bringing 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:42.520 them back with the secret history. And how lucky for 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:44.880 someone else that happened after they've been all over the world. 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:50.440 This ordinary water stains on this book some Greece. Now, 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:55.320 so your own connection which lives on now? Correct? You? 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:58.960 You you live in Greece part time? Well, I really 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:01.680 just say that to make myself sound more interesting. How 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:03.160 much of what you say is just to make you 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:05.839 sound we're interesting? How much of it is Factum? Very 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.120 little of what I say is to make myself sound 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:10.760 more interesting. But some of what I write is to 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:12.720 make myself sound more interesting. So I never would have 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:17.000 said I live in Greece for part of the time. Um, 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:19.000 But I did write that in my bio to give 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:21.560 myself a little extra glamour. Okay, I lived there like 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.240 three or four months of the year. You do, now, Yeah, 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:29.720 except for right that that right now, I'm here. Now, 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:33.560 what did your dad do? Um? He well, growing up, 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:38.920 my parents um had a party store. But did they 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:41.480 really Yeah? Yeah, I grew up with all sorts of 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:43.719 I mean I thought that that's what they were into, 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:46.200 so I really embraced that hard and was really into 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:48.359 partying for a long time. But it turns out it 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:50.800 was just like they got into it accidentally. They're just 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:54.120 you know, business people, so you're doing like a kid's 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:58.800 party store. Were like they'd sell party supplies and novelty items. 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:01.080 So like I grew up, there's yeah, a lot of 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:05.440 would be cushions around my house, like tons. Um, we've 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:10.080 only recently gotten through all of them, you know. Uh. Yeah, 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:11.919 I didn't have a lot of Like my parents weren't 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:15.360 into material objects, so I didn't have which is important 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.160 in suburban Long Island. I didn't have like the best clothes, 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:20.599 but like on Halloween, I was the best dressed. But 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:23.240 the only every other year was like a nightmare for me. 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:25.159 I mean every other time of year, all the kids 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:27.440 would you know, tease me, but on Halloween, I was 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:31.599 like I had everything. You're a goddess. Yeah, I don't 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:33.159 want to see. Were you close to your parents? But 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:36.240 you think your parents understood you. Did they cultivate sides 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:40.320 of you that are have kind of evolved Now you're writing. 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:43.719 Did you show your parents you're writing and did you 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:48.640 share with them stuff you wrote? Um? No, Well then 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:50.760 I was. I was always writing a journal, and my 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.000 father asked me once if he could, if he could 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.400 read what I was writing. And so I said, okay, 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:58.160 but after I die, because you wrote I really want 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.520 to kill my father. It was just that's how it's done. 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:05.280 You know my posthumous papers, You don't. You don't publish 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:08.920 your your journal before you die. Although I have published 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:11.440 a selection of my journal in my upcoming book. I 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.479 just slipped it in there just to promote it. But 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:17.599 you wrote a journal and you didn't share it with anybody. No, 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.719 that was the whole you know, the whole point of it, um, 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:26.680 and that it would be published posthumously. But I'm not 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:28.679 sure about that anymore. I mean, that was my idea 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:32.440 when I took it up in fourth grade. But you know, 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:34.880 my legacy as every fourth grader should be concerned with. 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:38.880 But in retrospect, I'm not sure it's such a I've 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:40.960 been looking over the pages and I'm not I'm not 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.839 sure if I actually am going to publish them after 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:45.719 I die, I might have to destroy them. You started 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:48.159 writing that when you were how old? Fourth grade? I think? 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:50.839 What kinds of things did you write in fourth grade? Um? Well, 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:55.560 that's you'll just have to wait. Give us just a 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:57.920 vague notion of what you vote. Was it all about, 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:00.440 like you know, today I walked home from school, it 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:04.120 was cold or was it? Was it beyond that? Was it? Like? Well? 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:08.279 It changed? So there were sometimes there were crushes, a 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.880 lot of crushes, um, I think, which you might think 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.240 sounds out a lescent, But that's what the romantic poets 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:18.800 were doing. So there's a long tradition of that sort 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:21.800 of thing, um, you know. And then I was trying 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:24.720 to work on my my descriptions for a while, so 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:30.200 I would describe water and trees, how many patients. Mostly 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:34.600 it's the good stuff we need to add down. It's volumes. Yeah, 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:36.520 I don't think. I don't think I'm actually gonna publish 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:39.960 it any anymore. That was the idea then, though. But 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:42.360 one time I had when I first came out of 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:44.880 college and I had started, I had it I wanted 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:46.840 to be a writer, and so I had written this thing, 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:49.280 and I had this idea. I told my parents, you know, 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:50.960 instead of getting a job, I'm going to be a 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:57.440 columnist because that's really easy. No, it's just what you said, 0:07:57.640 --> 0:07:59.720 what you say, and what's real or no, I mean 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:02.080 that's I was at the point where I thought, you 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:04.400 just want to be something and then you do it. 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:08.480 Um So, so I had read them this thing that 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:11.080 I had written. I mean, I thought it was funny, 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:13.920 but their faces kind of just fell because it was 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:18.920 really depressing. It turns out anyway, the point is, don't 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:20.840 show your work to your parents. They won't get it 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:22.800 because they just look at it to sort of like 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:25.800 figure out what's wrong with you, you know, like some 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.640 kind of Rosetta stone, to like where they failed, rather 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:31.640 than seeing its literary merit, Like, you know, where they 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.800 failed is pretty much where my writing succeeds, I think. 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:38.600 And neither of them writers ever. Well, my father is creative, 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:41.720 so he's he used to write and to do different. 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:44.160 He has a sort of artistic temperament. When is your 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:48.719 writing change beyond the journal that we're never going to 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:54.280 be reading. Um well, I guess I didn't really begin 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:59.520 writing properly until I was around twenty eight or twenty nine. 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:02.520 I'm and I was writing before that and fancied myself 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:04.600 a writer, but I didn't really become I was kind 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:08.600 of more of a dilettante um. And what changed were 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:10.920 we in the gap between ten and twenty eight? What 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:12.680 were you doing? You went to college for what? Oh? 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:15.520 I went to UM, I went to n y U 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:20.200 to study acting. Um. What were your feelings about that? Oh? 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:22.360 It was you know, I wanted to be an actress, 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.040 but there was a lot of time there. I missed academics. 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:28.360 You know, at especially at n y U, it's a 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:31.240 conservatory program, so it's a lot of money to be 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:35.160 pretending to be in a large body of water or 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.160 holding a coffee cup for like hours and hours everything. 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.000 That's exactly the two analogies I always mentioned. People, I say, 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:45.400 you're hip deep in some viscous substance, and now let's 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:49.120 change the viscosity and change and change. And then everybody 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:51.720 wore black clothes and smoked and drank a lot of coffee. 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.520 I did that for two years, principally because studio. Yeah, 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:58.679 I was in the Strasburg was I really So that's 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:02.040 why you say hip deep and avy and drinking coffee. Yeah, 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:06.280 that's what I went to. Who are your teachers? Ms? 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:13.600 Sandr Marsha No, yes, yes, Jeff he was my teacher. 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:17.920 Who yes, Yeah, I mean that was that was I 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:21.080 I enjoyed it. I just um, I just wanted to 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:24.600 study more things while I was in school, and then 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:26.280 I kind of got away from it. I think it 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:27.800 was a very good thing because I guess as an 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:30.000 actor you have to audition a lot, and I don't 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:32.400 think you know, I guess that's your real job, not 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:36.480 actually acting, and for most people, a few people actually 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:40.120 have the opportunity. I think that's that that's that's potentially right. 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:42.080 And I also think that the job is really what 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:44.680 do you do with your stuff when you're not acting? Yeah. 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:47.079 I always say to people, the task is to find 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.599 out how much you like acting, because you're going to 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:52.880 get to do so little of it. So what I 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:54.679 found out when I was at acting school and why 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.720 I stayed with it for two years, is I really 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:01.080 I had discovered the nightlife in New York City, and 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:03.640 I had never had a social life in high school 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.280 because I had so many you know, my god, you're 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.000 my doppel gang or keep going, Really, what happened to me? 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:10.520 I'm in New York. I got a couple of bucks 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:13.480 in my pocket. My what's party? Yeah? Well it was wasted. 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.800 It was extraordinary. And I mean as a as a 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:18.680 as a young woman in New York City, you're really 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:20.920 sort of taken up. And I was weird in high school, 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:24.120 you know, because I was really too enthusiastic. I was 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:27.960 involved in all of these extracurricular activitis. And I was 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:30.440 in the I founded the debate club with one other 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:33.520 with one other student. He was the president because he 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:35.680 was a senior, and I was the vice president because 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:39.360 I was a freshman, and we were the only members. 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:41.520 That was the club for independent thought. There was the 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:43.560 drama club, of course, and then I was president of 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.920 my class and um whils. I was in the I 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:50.400 was in the kick line, the dance team, the swim team. 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:53.520 I was in running. But then my knees gave out, 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:58.480 so I was just really busy all the time. Um. 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:00.640 But then when I came to college, it was like 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:02.880 all of a sudden, you don't have to do anything. 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.760 You don't you barely have to go to class. There's 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.439 no required of you. Yeah, so I was like oh 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:10.600 now I can. Just so the real work was at night, 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:12.640 you know, going out, being out until like five in 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:17.400 the morning, and um at that time, let's see, there 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:19.679 was a remember the first time I went to a 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:24.199 nightclub called Chaos, and it was like the world broke open. 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.640 And and the thing is I was so weird in 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:30.880 high school. But then all of these men they thought 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.360 I was so sophisticated and interesting. That's what they said. 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.560 I understand, you know, and they were like, you don't 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:39.520 really you don't seem eighteen. I thought for sure you 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:41.920 were twenty one. I thought this was that meant I 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:44.520 was sophisticated. They were just saying, like, I thought you 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:47.840 were like legal and on the level that I could 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:50.480 feed you. And I wasn't get in trouble as I'm 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:56.080 passing you this Manhattan. Yeah, when you stopped going to 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.600 the drama program and you transferred to Gallatin correct and 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:02.160 when you transferred to Galaton, you study philosophy and literature 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:06.000 sort of, Yeah, yeah, that's what did they call it 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:09.400 a Gallaton? They call it individualized studies. So basically you 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.600 could just string together, yeah, would be as many books 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:15.280 as possible. And then and then when you left in 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:17.559 your heart. You left acting. You did not only leave 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:19.360 the acting program. You decided I'm not going to be 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:21.560 an actress. Did not do that. I want, I figured 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.200 I would be an actress after after college, but I 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:26.920 just didn't need to do that. Yeah, I could do 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:29.200 that later, But then the further I got from them, 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.719 she went two years to uh Gallaton and you were 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:36.120 studying independent thought? Were you writing then? I was? I 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:39.560 was writing poetry. But you but you discount that and say, 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:44.920 no serious writing until Why No, I was writing somewhat seriously, 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:48.200 but I mean I wasn't writing with the kind of 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.000 rigor to really put together a body of work. You know, 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:55.960 I was dabbling or calling myself a writer, But I mean, 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.120 you really need to put in many many hours, well 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:05.880 hours every day to be a writer consistently. Um. So 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:07.760 before that, I just did a lot of drinking and 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.640 talking about writing and then you know, a little writing. 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:12.520 And when you say you did a lot of drinking, 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.240 was that something that you were doing um with groups 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:18.439 of people with friends and it was all social and 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:21.800 carefree and reckless. Or were you like going home and 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:25.600 cracking open a bottle of old Smuggler and having that 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:29.640 at four in the morning by yourself or both? Um? Yeah, both. 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:32.560 I mean I guess when I first started drinking, I 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:38.960 actually started drinking. Um, I mean yeah, I guess. There 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:40.960 were a few times where I drank alone, mainly because 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:43.480 I wanted to make sure that I wasn't doing it 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:47.440 out of pure pressure. Do I really enjoy this? It 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:51.120 turns out I did. I don't need you. Yeah, But 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:53.440 I mean it was both social and you know, and 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:57.960 then eventually it's just it's great all the time. And 0:14:58.000 --> 0:14:59.840 were you crushing on these men that were trying to 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:02.520 buy these Manhattan's when you were trying to figure out 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:05.360 if you were really twenty one years old? Um? Some 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:07.800 of them I liked. I guess sometimes I just like 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:10.440 that they liked me. You know, it's always you wanted 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:17.200 to be adored. Yeah, it doesn't everyone two years at Gallaton. 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:19.880 So you're done after four years and you leave college 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:24.720 and you say you want to what. Well, I wanted 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:27.640 to be a writer obviously at that point. I mean 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:29.960 I always do that. I always wanted to actress actings 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:32.520 over No, I still wanted to be an actor, I mean, 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:34.600 and I had thought maybe I'd be a movie star 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:38.680 to support my writing, you know, reasonable stuff. There you 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.960 go again and UM and then I then I had 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:46.880 an idea to maybe be um a business mogul to 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.920 support my acting, which would support the writing. UM, so 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:55.720 human rights were it was all business mogul movie star. Yeah. 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:59.400 Well I actually, I mean I did. I was a teacher. 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:02.640 I talked, I so so, but but I didn't do 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:05.200 it for any good reason. I mean I had I 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:08.240 was teaching with Teach for America teachers and teaching fellows 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:11.000 at a at at a troubled school in the South Bronx. 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:13.120 How long did you do that? Um? I did it 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:15.120 for a year and then it was the school was 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:18.480 taken over by the state, so they got rid of everyone, 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:20.520 and then I went to UM. Then I went to 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:24.160 a different school. How many years total teaching to to 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:26.920 to that? I was teaching middle school? So you took 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:30.680 two years to teach for no good reason? Well, because 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:33.320 I think because I needed a job. I mean that 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.560 I didn't have any good intentions that I was going 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:38.400 to save anyone. But I think this is why I 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:41.720 lasted at the at this public school, because all of 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:45.440 the Teach for America fellows quit within a month because 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:47.360 you know, they were being threatened and things like that. 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:50.840 So were they being threatened by the students. Yes, both 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:53.640 of the eventually ended up having to teach Jim too, 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:55.520 because both of the gym teachers by the end of 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:58.560 the year were jumped. It was a very rough school 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.040 for your assaulted at all. No, but I was often 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:07.760 sore from breaking up fights. What was it in your 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:10.360 in your mind that I thought you thought you were 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:13.919 you were born to referee fights among middle school children 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:16.119 in the Bronx. Well, I just needed I mean, I 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:17.520 just have this image of you being like, you know, 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:20.199 here here now enough of that, and you're like stepping 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:23.920 in between like somebody with a broken bottle and a chair. No, actually, 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:26.760 one time someone did have a chair over another another 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:30.200 kid's head. That wasn't Actually, that wasn't one time. How 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:32.600 many fights did you break up during your two year career? Oh? 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:35.920 It was multiple times a day, right, and then ended 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:38.560 after two years? Why? Well, in order for me to 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:41.560 escape to graduate school and you went to graduate school 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:45.560 were Um? I went to City College to study writing 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:48.639 for how long? Um? I tried to stretch that out 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:51.680 as long as possible. Again, I mean that's why I say, 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:54.720 first of all, The truth is, graduate school is most 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:56.879 of the time, unless someone's becoming a doctor, it's pretty 0:17:56.920 --> 0:17:59.480 much a shelter for for kids who just don't want 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.639 to grow up. Yeah, And I mean that's why I 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:04.760 had even considered a PhD, because I was like, I'm 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:09.600 just gonna make this last forever. Um. But so I 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:12.600 was there for a few years. I was also teaching 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:16.440 in the I was teaching undergraduate humanities and creative writing 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:18.639 at the same time. And all the time you're doing this, 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:22.920 what's funny to you, what's entertaining to you, what's humored 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:25.440 to you? What are you reading? What are you watching 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:28.359 listening to? Did you go to the theater to the 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:30.880 movies all the time? Well, I was reading. I've I've 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.240 always been reading all of the time. But what were 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:38.680 you reading? What were you reading that was funny? Um, 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:40.719 I don't know, perhaps a little bit of Donald barthel 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:44.280 Me Selene Journey to the End of the Night. I 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:47.560 never I've never really read anything that's been exclusively funny. 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:51.680 I like things that are very very serious, but that 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:55.680 make you laugh consistently, because I think that that's more 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:58.560 truthful and how life is, or at least that's how 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:07.320 I experienced life. Um, were your movie cover? Yeah, I 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:11.119 like to go to the movies alone. That sounds so sad, 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.600 it's perfect. Well, you don't need anybody go to the movies. 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:17.840 It's you. I don't understand the whole world for the 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:20.399 people up there on screen. Why do people go with 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:22.800 other people? They just chew and then they look at 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:25.400 you and you can hear them breathing. I don't understand 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:28.880 going to the movies with another person. Um, I love 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:31.080 going to the movies alone. That's the way to do it. 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:33.760 And if you can, if you to go in the 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:35.920 afternoon to a movie that's been out and really for 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:38.560 a really long time, and you have the whole theater, 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:41.760 especially in New York City. I mean when I was younger, 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:43.960 I was living in a very small place. Now it's 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:47.040 just small, but my early place was very small. So 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:51.400 you go to this place and it's this huge room 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:54.399 all to yourself. I mean it's like you're you're like 0:19:54.440 --> 0:20:03.560 a kid for a little Yes, coming up smiles, talks 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.119 about what she used to do with many of her days, 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:15.119 drink heavily explore the Here's the thing archives. I spoke 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:18.280 with the late Elaine Stritch, who wasn't a native New Yorker, 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:21.880 but became one of the city's most iconic residents. When 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:25.080 she retired and finally left the city, she knew what 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:28.719 she was going to miss. The personality of human beings 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:36.600 in New York. They are so opened and second, they're 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:40.639 not watching what they're doing. They're not you know, they're 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:44.920 they're not watching their language, They're not watching anything. They're 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:50.440 just going through life saying what. Yeah, all right, fuck 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:54.920 you take a listen at Here's the Thing dot org. 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:09.159 This is Alec Baldwin and you were listening to Here's 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:13.080 the Thing. Author Irish Smiles is honest about her life. 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:16.880 Both of her books humorously deal with very real issues 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:20.840 of alienation and self abuse. Both of these were present 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:23.280 in her life even when she was in graduate school 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:27.640 and working jobs on the side. I was teaching creative 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:31.200 writing and humanities at the at the school to undergraduates, 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:35.080 and I had picked up some some jobs waitressing and 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:37.080 as a hostess. But I wasn't good at those so 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:41.520 because um I had well, I was drinking really heavily. 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:44.880 Uh so, and then they gave me this brunch. Also, 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:46.879 I'm just not a good waitress, but they gave me 0:21:46.960 --> 0:21:49.760 this brunch shift, right, So I would go out and 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:52.080