"Hidden America," Seeso's new travel-show parody, is a long-awaited gut-punch for every Bourdain addict.
In the show, host Jonah Ray tours real cities interviewing fake locals and unearthing satirical gems across our great nation.
As a reformed "No Reservations" and "Parts Unknown" fan, I thirsted for somebody to skewer Bourdain's self-impressed dad bravado and seemingly endless web of close friends within the culinary community. The show was so ripe! And thankfully, Ray did not disappoint.
"Hidden America" brilliantly shines a light on cultural truths that other travel shows wont touch, like Atlanta's obsession with zombie preparation, Seattle's weather-induced depression, and Chicago's gun problem (which was quickly set aside to talk about hot dogs).
The Huffington Post got to talk with Ray about nailing the Bourdain cadence and his mixed feelings about Boston.
"Hidden America" is now available on Seeso.
First off, who did the music? The music is great.
Thanks! Most of the music we got from Sub Pop Records. The theme music was by The Ruby Suns. In the beginning, I thought about doing a parody of the Josh Harvey song that he did for "No Reservations." But I didn't want to be too note-for-note on the parody.
"Hidden America" is a sketch show based on another show, like "Reno 911" drew from "Cops." Those shows always stay within the world of the original show, but you went on fantastical journeys and broke the form. Did you see those other shows and just want to do something different?
It can get pretty redundant when you're parodying something as specific as a travel show. Also, it's not an ensemble cast. There's no recurring characters outside of me and Chaz Duffy. It was important to me to kind of not meet the expectation of where it was gonna go. And to do that, you had to break out of your standard travel show with doing stuff that's fantastical or sci-fi.
I really felt like you nailed the Bourdain cadence during the voiceover stuff.
Thank you! Bourdain has such a specific rhythm and I'm pretty sure he did that because he didn't want to have it sound like your normal news. I got Kitchen Confidential on audiobook, and between shows, I was listening to him so I could feel out his cadence.
His cadence is news anchor plus Vice.
Yeah, definitely.
Besides the Bourdain cadence, what other Bourdain tropes were you most excited to have fun with?
I didn't want to be the guy that did the weird food competition thing. I like the idea of a somebody saying "This guy makes the most authentic gumbo!" And it's like, if you're really gonna find the guy that makes the most authentic gumbo, he might not be the most liberally minded guy. You're like, wow, there's something off about this guy and I have a feeling it's just because he's a horrible person. There was one that we didn't end up making but I had this idea where there was this new hot restaurant in the city and women love it. It's because the chef is this overly-sexed gorgeous model guy. But the whole idea is that we start describing the food he makes as if it's those interesting plates. First of all, the guy doesn't know how to cook at all, but everyone comes here because he's so sexy and he's like, "Yeah, one of my biggest dishes is mashed-up Oreos. Women love it when I put on chocolate gravy on steak."
The last time we spoke, you talked about the inherent narcissism Bourdain has to have to be like, "People want to watch me eat stuff!"
He's right to have that narcissism. I think a lot of it stems from the fact that he's a great writer. His books are great, his articles are great. He knows how to formulate everything to where it's really enjoyable to watch. But these other guys on these other travel shows, it's like, I don't care about seeing you shove a spicy shrimp in your maw.
I also remember you told me about how your "run-'n'-gun" style of shoot got you into trouble?
Yeah, we got kicked out of a graveyard in Chicago.
In Boston, we were shooting in a comedy club that we were running long and the guys who were running it were starting to get very upset. Like, the guy threw down a glass and like, was trying to mess up takes to try and get us out of there. It was, uh, real aggressive people.
Do you like Boston? Seriously.
Hahaha! It's hard to drive around. The streets don't make sense. The people are really mean but, you know, it also has bad weather!
As a comedian, there's no real way of saying anything bad about it. I just like making fun of it because it's a very integral part of our culture and our history. My favorite part about Boston and Bostonians is that they know they're great, but they never feel like they're given enough credit for how great they are.
Does Bourdain know about the show?
I don't know. I don't think so. I'm really worried about it mainly because I really like Bourdain. I did an entire show because of how much I like Anthony Bourdain and I'm afraid he's gonna not like it and then make fun of me and then I'm going to have a hard time watching his show. The other day, he tweeted at my buddy, Rob Delaney, about how much he liked "Catastrophe," I was just like, oh god, it's so close. What if he tweets at me? "Hey, you suck." Aw, man. And he would be right, because he's Anthony Bourdain, and he's usually right.
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