In the latest episode of “Don’t Mind If I Don’t,” Aaron Gold, host and funny bear man, finds out way more about football and the Philadelphia Eagles than he ever thought possible — and didn’t fall asleep once. His co-host and girlfriend Christine Stoddard (hi) is here for emotional support (and food.) His guest host and long-time buddy Barrett Tribe actually really loves football. And he’s not the only one! EJ Stewart from WFAN Sports pops in for an interview to drop some Jets love. Plus, there’s a ton of tailgate action at Lincoln Financial Field. And exciting news for Quail Bell lovers: This is the first “Don’t Mind If I Don’t” episode produced in association with Quail Bell.
Nate Brown, director of the latest episode of “Don’t Mind If I Don’t,” answered a few of Quail Bell’s questions about pigskins and comedy. Read on and scroll to the end for the full episode of “Don’t Mind If I Don’t: Football.”
Why did you want to direct this episode?
When we started brainstorming about this episode, segment ideas just came easily to me. And I knew if we were going to talk to some superfans and get a feel for the culture, the best real place to do it would be to go to Philly. I have a few Twitter mutuals who are the heart and soul of the tailgating experience down there and thought they’d be incredible ambassadors. I’ve been a huge football and Eagles fan for years, and I was pretty sure that that passion would be the best fit to guide Aaron through this adventure.
What’s your previous directing experience?
I went to college for TV/film production, so tons of projects there, including a full, 30-minute sitcom pilot. I also co-directed a puppet sitcom there, as well as some live studio tv shows. After college, I kept myself busy producing seven films for the NYC 48-Hour Film Project and directing six of them. Additionally, I wrote and directed two shorts for the Magnet Theater Video Lab. All nine of those can be found on the Pizza Kid Productions YouTube page.
What’s other film/video/TV experience you have?
I’ve worked in TV news production for almost 20 years, serving as the studio floor director for NY1’s “Mornings on 1” for the last 8 years. In 2019, I got to experience all the madness of being the floor supervisor for the live weekly MNN comedy show, “Chris Gethard Presents.” And one of my favorite projects was producing and co-starring in the conspiracy theory parody podcast “Probecast with Macky Kneckbone.”
What attracted you to this project?
“Don’t Mind if I Don’t” is such a rich premise to mine, and Aaron’s such a magnetic host. I was originally interested in bringing my studio directing and interview producing experience to help the studio version of the show reach its higher potential. But for this episode specifically, the prospect of getting out into the field, meeting all the fun tailgaters, and telling their side of the story was such an interesting topic to explore.
How’s did you approach directing this episode? What was your process?
We had to kind of drill it down into specific aspects of the game. Generally I like to think about interviews for this show in terms of the questions “Why is this important to you?”, “Why is this important to everyone else?”, and “Why should this be important to me?”. For this episode specifically, I think the tailgate section was obviously our centerpiece (the “Why is it important to you?”), but we needed to set up a broader view of football fandom before we focused in on Eagles tailgating. EJ was a really great at establishing why football is important to the world at large. But the culture is only part of it. Meeting people and finding out why they like it doesn’t really help Aaron get enjoyment out of watching a game — exploring that third question. He needed to actually learn some finer points so that he’d understand what he was seeing when he watched a game. We brought in an expert to help teach some plays, so that when Aaron finally had to face the final boss of actually watching a game, he’d be in a position to give it a chance and maybe accept it a little.
What were some highlights of production? Post-production?
The tailgate segment was the first thing we shot. I’d been following a bunch of these fans for years (some more than ten years maybe?), and so finally getting to meet them in person was a joy. The whole day was pretty nerve-wracking going in, but I had a pretty good plan of who we needed to talk to and when, and all of the rest of the shots that we needed to get. Also, watching the game at Matt Cohen’s was great, because I love hanging with Matt, drinking beers on a couch, and watching the Eagles make it to the Super Bowl. I can’t say enough about Jake Baron’s editing work on this. Tight, fun, with great visual jokes. I thought deciding on the order of the tailgate interviews was going to be a huge challenge, but we sat down together and knocked it out in about 20 minutes.
What do you love most about this episode?
If I have to pick a specific section, I’d say the interview with Tommy in the Birds Bus is the heart of the whole episode. I’ve known him since elementary school, and I’d seen the pictures of the bus and his tailgate crew on Facebook. Being able to sit down in a pretty quiet environment while we were there, and get a really well-stated, passionate, and heartfelt answer about how much these experiences mean to everyone, with the Eagles at the center, really just put a capper on everything that everyone else had said that day. I was standing in the bus with them with a huge smile on my face during the whole thing because I knew that it was going to be the most affecting part of the episode.
Why are you a football fan?
Every sport, when you dive deep into it, is heavy on strategy. Baseball is filled with one-on-one battles and statistical analyses that inform how defenses position themselves. Basketball, hockey, and soccer have certain plays drawn up, but most of the work is done, like improv, to put the players in the best position to perform as a team and create in the moment. This may seem like a crazy concept, with all the hard-hitting, and the meathead stereotypes, but football is absolutely the most cerebral true team sport.
Every play involves eleven different players on each side, doing eleven pre-planned motions and coverages, trying to outmaneuver the other side. The offense can come out trying to do something, and see that the defense already has guessed ahead of them. And then what adjustments do they then make in the limited time before the playclock runs down? There’s a clip where QB Drew Brees explains a playcall that he’d have to make, and know every single part of it, and it’s like 20 code words long. For one play. And then you have to think, he’s gotta know at least 40 of those. I’ve watched videos of folks breaking down plays and coverages, and this stuff is so complicated. But at the same time, it can still be accessible and fun to casual fans.
Lastly, your team only plays once a week, so it’s lower commitment than sports where they’re playing 80-162 games a season. Football really just becomes the soundtrack to Sunday group hangouts with friends. Baseball is a daily soap opera. Football is a weekly primetime watercooler drama.
Why should viewers watch this episode?
I think Aaron goes on a great journey, meets some really interesting folks, and maybe helps the viewers themselves change their mind about football and Eagles fans. #gobirds. And also there’s a lot of good jokes.
What’s next for you creatively?
I don’t have a ton of my own irons in the fire creatively right now, but I’m looking forward to helping produce and grow future episodes of “Don’t Mind If I Don’t.” Maybe I’ll finally get back to refining a couple of the pilot scripts I wrote during the pandemic. Maybe I’ll try working on a new short film screenplay. And definitely continuing to perform with my improv team, Cat’s Cradle.
Watch the full episode of “Don’t Mind If I Don’t: Football” here:
Having trouble with the embed? Copy/paste this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb-B-7fqvxQ
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