Wednesday, January 02, 2019

EP104: Meet Tracy Newman – Emmy-winning writer, musician, show runner, improviser, and wizard with playing cards.


Hope for older writers:  Tracy Newman broke in when she was 46.  She also had other careers.  She’s a fascinating Renaissance Woman who once lived with the great Ricky Jay, guested on THE TONIGHT SHOW, and wrote the famous Ellen-coming-out episode of ELLEN.   Almost an hour of fun and inspiring stories.


Listen to the Hollywood & Levine podcast!

9 comments :

Peter said...

The Democrats took control of the House today. Let the fun begin. Time for Trump and the Republicans to get a taste of their own medicine.

Karan G said...

A very interesting and delightful guest. She has great self-awareness and a capacity for understanding others…which probably explains her gift for humor. I don’t know what “looping” is, but I will google it. By the way, I enjoyed her mention of Bob Dylan and Jack Elliott. I had an opportunity to see “Ramblin Jack Elliott” a couple years ago. If she or others are quasi historians of that era, I highly recommend they see Jack perform. He is now 87 and still touring. He can still sing and play the guitar and tells great stories of his pals, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and others, and is performing out west.

Lemuel said...

Great podcast, remarkable woman. She kinda reminded me of Lotus Weinstock.

Andy Rose said...

@Karan G.: "Looping" in this case is when voice actors dub in the sounds of people talking in a crowd for a movie or TV show. For technical reasons, only the voices of the principal actors are actually recorded on set. The extras have to silently pretend to talk, so their voices are dubbed in later, usually by a much smaller group of performers. Trained improvisers tend to be preferred for "loop groups" because their lines are not scripted. When Tracy refers to "walla," she's talking about the rumble of people in a large crowd conversing in the background, which is also looped in. Since those conversations are not supposed to be intelligible, the loop group will often speak in indistinct nonsense syllables.

E. Yarber said...

I can understand why you didn't want to lose a moment of this conversation. Tracy has a real gift for dissecting her creative process, which I now see made her Ricky Jay piece so insightful. Thank you both.

Karan G said...

@Andy Rose: Thanks so much for the comprehensive explanation. I appreciate it!

Apetalk1971 said...

I think I'm in love with this woman. Does she go for younger men?

Mike Barer said...

Very well done.

benson said...

What a fascinating woman. Thank you.