Bigmouth, the new animated series on Netflix, is just terrific. Really--many moments of pure hilarity, so I can recommend fully if you're in need of some down time and laughs. I anticipate the show will be a big hit, and certainly hope so!
For me, it's been incredibly fun to watch, since the show was created by two of my oldest childhood friends, Andrew Goldberg & Nick Kroll, and it features many memories from our childhood together.
For me, it's been incredibly fun to watch, since the show was created by two of my oldest childhood friends, Andrew Goldberg & Nick Kroll, and it features many memories from our childhood together.
Andrew & Nick told me about Bigmouth about a year and a half ago when the show was first green-lighted, so I've eagerly anticipated its arrival ever since. I worried a bit about whether or how I might be depicted in the show (the character of Jay, which is my oldest brother's name, is loosely based on me and another classmate), but my desire to see their comedic rendition of our childhood certainly trumped any concerns.
So when the show was released a few weeks ago, I hunkered down for two straight nights to devour it, and I loved it and was impressed with what they created. Among and between the moments of laugh-out-loud, shocking antics, are moments of pure tenderness and sweetness, informed by the common experiences that stem from the roller coaster that is puberty. It is this common experience that will make the show successful--since we've all been through it. Viewers will see themselves in the stories, and relate.
Andrew & Nick, along with Eytan Oren and Jon Eger, were classmates of mine, and my best friends growing up. All these years later, they remain a part of me--my past, my present, my thoughts, my heart. Watching Bigmouth made me want to tell a bit about their stories and role in my life.
Nick Kroll
Nick was really...amazing as a kid. Incredibly lovable and charismatic. As the show rightly depicts, he was very small in stature, but also adorable, confident, funny, and adventurous. He did not hit puberty until much later than the rest of us. In fact, when we all went our separate ways after 8th grade, I don't know whether Nick had hit puberty by then or not. By contrast, Andrew hit puberty at around 8 years old, and was shaving shortly thereafter. By the time Nick started shaving, Andrew had already started losing his hair!
Nick was tons of fun as a kid. In his bedroom were two basketball hoops that we used to play one-on-one death matches on, and he was a force to be reckoned with despite being much smaller than I was. And he was pretty tough on a real basketball court too. He made huge impacts on the games, running around the court, disrupting passing lanes, getting steals, and pulling off miraculous, gutty plays. I recently spoke with our old Coach, Steve, who is also caricatured in the show, and he confirmed that Nick, Eytan, and I were his best players, with a slight emphasis on me (thank god!).
Nick definitely had a special quality--he was fearless in all things--not just in sports, but socially as well. He loved being in the center of everything, and felt comfortable there. I remember on one school trip, he was sitting in the back of the bus telling jokes and singing dirty nursery rhymes. The other kids and I ate it up, and it was fun.
Nick definitely had a special quality--he was fearless in all things--not just in sports, but socially as well. He loved being in the center of everything, and felt comfortable there. I remember on one school trip, he was sitting in the back of the bus telling jokes and singing dirty nursery rhymes. The other kids and I ate it up, and it was fun.
Those bus rides also foretold of his comedic bent. On one trip, we were headed to an old age home in the Bronx, and on the way there the bus passed a graveyard. A ten-year old Nick saw the gravestones poking out from the ground and yelled out, "We must be getting close!" He was always clever and funny. Years after that, we were in Oklahoma! together (for a second time), and when another actor messed up a line, Nick rolled with it, quite hilariously. Sadly, I don't recall the details, but it was funny stuff, and an early sign of his improv abilities.
About 8 years ago, when I moved to LA, Nick and I had lunch, and he told me about his single minded pursuit of his career. It was obvious to me he would achieve whatever he set out to accomplish. That's who Nick is--an unrelenting go-getter. I can only imagine what it's taken for him to achieve what he has. Enormous energy, drive, ingenuity, talent, and passion (and possibly a covert deal with the devil?). In short, the Nick of today is a magnification of the Nick(y) we grew up with. It's fun to see how he has blossomed.
I will always love and admire him. He's very special and his career reflects that.
Andrew Goldberg
Though less famous than Nick, Andrew too is a force to be reckoned with. As an only child, Andrew spent years in his room and imagination, doing... god only knows what. But in those hours, he evolved into something very rare, with his unrivaled combination of imagination and incredible brain power.
Andrew is, to my mind, a certifiable genius. I'm not sure it's a matter of debate or subjectivity actually.
As a kid, he would receive baseball card sets as a gift for holidays and birthdays. Each set had hundreds of cards, and each year had multiple sets, resulting in thousands of unique cards released for collecting every year. I collected baseball cards too, but I would buy little packs with 10 cards or so. As a result, I cherished each card, and when I was lucky enough to get a great player's card, I would frame it in a little glass case to make sure it stayed well protected. Each card was so rare and valuable to me that I wanted to savor each one by treating it with care and respect.
By contrast, Andrew was so inundated with card sets each year, that he kept them in the only containers large enough to hold them: huge GARBAGE bins. In his bedroom were multiple bins of cards, strewn all over the place in no order. For Andrew, the lack of organization didn't matter though, because he never needed to find the cards after viewing them just once...
...because he had already committed them to memory.
Much like Rainman's, Andrew's brain is a supercomputer of memory and processing power. He can do things that truly look like magic. For instance, you can reach into any of the garbage bins and pull out any of the the tens of thousands of cards. If you show Andrew an area of the card no greater than 1 square centimeter, he can extrapolate which card it is, and then proceed to tell you all of the statistics on the back of the card. Tens of thousands of cards with hundreds of thousands of stats, all available to him as simple recall. In fact, he tells me, he can still do it 30 years later. He is just not normal. Here's a clip of it made a few years ago:
After elementary school, Andrew and I continued on to White Plains High School together, where we remained close. At a certain point, his brilliance hit fifth gear. He would score perfectly on almost all standardized tests, earning him a spot at Columbia where he graduated with a 4.0 GPA, Magna Cum Laude. After that, he went to film school in California, and then got a job writing for Family Guy after a few shorter stints with other shows. Like Nick, his career has been blessed. I know tons of writers that constantly have to look for work, and it's a grind. Andrew, for all the time he's been here, has remained 100% employed at all times, and in fact, does side projects in addition to his formal "jobs". It's a level of intellectual production that can only come from the most fertile of brains.
Andrew as a kid--he was just a lot of fun. He loved baseball. He loved comedy. He was hilarious. He was eccentric. He was...terrific. In high school, he and our dear friend Dan Isenberg started a cable television show called Prime Time with Dan & Andrew. Andrew wrote many/most of the skits, and they were hilarious. The show gained a following, and Dan & Andrew were like celebrities within the class. Dan, another terrific talent, became a rapper, and we are all still in touch to this day. Here's one of my favorite clips from their show, a skit called "Name that STD!":
In Bigmouth, Andrew's childhood household is hilariously depicted--because it really was a crazy place. I remember one time touching one of the walls to his staircase, an offense so egregious that his father threatened to make me repaint the whole house! In the final Episode of Bigmouth, Season I, there's a reference to Andrew's dad going crazy over drywall, and it's pretty hilarious.
It was a crazy place (though my house had it's own craziness!)--but a terrific breeding ground for comedy. As the saying goes, comedy=tragedy+time. Bigmouth capitalizes on this...#Bigtime. Many of the funniest moments were not so funny at the time, but are hilarious in retrospect.
Eytan Oren
Eytan Oren was a big part of our childhood, despite the fact that no character in Bigmouth is clearly based on him. That said, his impact on all of us was undeniable.
When we were very young, Eytan used to watch MTV pretty much around the clock. He wanted to be a musician, maybe even a rock star, and he practiced diligently to improve his chops and achieve his dreams. Today, he plays numerous instruments, sings fabulously, and has performed in many, many bands over the years. A number of years ago, one of his bands released a music video called "Everything Changes" that went viral. Here it is!
As a kid, Eytan was also a terrific athlete and student. Come to think of it, I can't think of anything he wasn't good at. My mother loved his gorgeous eyelashes, and today he remains quite blessed with an impressive head of hair.
He's just a great guy. Brilliant in many ways himself. And, although we don't speak often, we remain close. I know that on my end, I will always love him.
Jon Eger
Jon has made no attempt to lead a public life. And I will respect that here and keep it brief.
Jon comes from a family where both parents are psychologists, and he himself is a practicing psychologist in NYC today. He is a very solid person--incredibly capable and talented at abstraction. He is a great listener. He is empathetic and compassionate, while remaining conceptually honest. He is exactly the type of doctor you'd hope to find when the need arises.
As kids, Jon and I were very close, and we were into "guy" stuff. Our version of fantasy play--we shot guns, wrestled, hiked, played baseball with his dad, and communicated with each other nightly using our high powered walkie-talkies.
Most noteworthy--Jon got me hooked on magic. He knew a few great tricks (coin matrix, for instance) that piqued my interest in magic, and we spent much of our adolescence and early high school years practicing and learning magic. On Saturdays, he and I would take the train into Manhattan and go to Tannen's Magic Shop & Rubens Deli. Then during the week, we would practice what we learned from the weekend, only to return the following weekend to come back for more.
Most noteworthy--Jon got me hooked on magic. He knew a few great tricks (coin matrix, for instance) that piqued my interest in magic, and we spent much of our adolescence and early high school years practicing and learning magic. On Saturdays, he and I would take the train into Manhattan and go to Tannen's Magic Shop & Rubens Deli. Then during the week, we would practice what we learned from the weekend, only to return the following weekend to come back for more.
Jon and I remain very close to this day. So close, in fact, that he called just moments ago while I was writing this paragraph. He will always be a rock for me, someone who will be there through the ups and downs that life presents. And I will be there for him. Always. I love him.
To my friends Jon, Eytan, Nick, & Andrew--l'chaim my friends. You're in my heart, always.
"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"-Quote from "Stand By Me"
