Hello, It's Me - March

It's March 5th! Time for the March 1st newsletter!

It’s a big month here at Gould Industries and I hope you can take part in it!

My special Perfectly Normal, currently available on YouTube, was recently written up in Vulture. Big thanks to Jesse David Fox for the kind words.

5 New Comedy Specials You Should Definitely Watch (When You Have a Moment)

Dana Gould, Perfectly Normal (YouTube)

It’s hard to explain what alternative comedy is in 2025. Performing in nontraditional spaces has become common and commercialized, and the fractured media environment makes it difficult to define what’s “mainstream.” In this context, a new special from alternative-comedy leading light Dana Gould is a useful touchstone. Perfectly Normal doesn’t feel like a time machine back to the ’90s, but it’s a nice reminder of the sensibility that defined that revolutionary era of comedy. Gould, who used to work on The Simpsons, is an incredibly sharp writer, but his presentation is still conversational and sardonic, even when throwing out perfectly crafted jokes, like, “My father-in-law is an airline pilot. Do you know the difference between an airline pilot and God? God doesn’t walk around like a fucking airline pilot.”

While it’s become more common for comedians to be personal, Gould still cuts a bit deeper than is standard: “[My dad] was a very serious man — unless he was drinking and then he was hilarious. So I grew up with a dad who was really, really funny all the time.” This transitions into setting up a bit where the comedy is structured more like a sketch than a traditional stand-up joke, as Gould explains that his dad would sing Christmas carols all year but changed the lyrics to complain about his life. To the tune of “Jingle Bells”: “Oh, I make all the money and your mother spends it all / So I hope you want to be homeless ’cause we’re going to lose the house / Oh, your grandma’s sick, and she isn’t going to make it / And you better not cry ’cause I don’t like people’s feelings.” There are also whimsical dissections of obscure pop-culture references, like the movie Blacula, which ties into Gould mocking “podcasts dedicated to the resurgence of the alpha male,” which are currently as close to mainstream as comedy has right now. The dream of the ’90s is alive in Perfectly Normal.

- Jesse David Fox

Now, if you’d rather hear the material and not have to look at me (I get it), the album is available on iTunes. For some reason it’s listed in Bible Studies and not Comedy. I know, I know. We’re working on it.

I’ll be performing LIVE at The Punchline in Atlanta, GA this March 14 - 16 at The Punchline. Do come down! Tickets are available right here!

I wanted to take a minute to congratulate my wife, Kat, on her documentary, Ex-Friends, which just won the Best Documentary Short at the LA Film Awards. Ex Friends, available soon, is an examination of “the other divorce:” when close friends, or even best friends, become ex-friends. It happens, it leaves a scar, and it’s rarely spoken about.

Kat will be releasing a podcast soon, with the vaguely similar title, Ex-Friends, where she will further examine the subject through interviews.

As for MY podcast, The Dana Gould Hour this month’s edition features a cult movie nerd-out with author Harry Medved (The Golden Turkey Awards, The Fifty Worst Films Of All Time), screenwriter Bennet Yellin (Dumb and Dumber) and author Samm Deighan, (Revolution In 35mm) as well as a True Tales From Weirdsville deep dive examining the late, great David Lynch’s magnum opus, Twin Peaks, from the original series, the misunderstood-at-the-time-but-considered-a-masterpiece-now feature Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and 2017’s not-what-you-thought-it-was-going-to-be-but-who-has-the-audacity-to-think-they-know-what-David-Lynch-is-going-to-do Twin Peaks: The Return.

All that and more, coming this month!

Coming in April, Dr. Z returns to the LA Stage. It’s April With A Z! at Dynsty Typewriter. Be there, or don’t go, but lie and say you did!

Gould out!