Listeners, are you ready to be exalted?! This week, we welcome back author, screenwriter, Listen to Sassy co-host, and now OSCAR NOMINEE Pamela Ribon. And to welcome her back we’re going on a road trip with some exotic male dancers for Magic Mike XXL. The somewhat surprising sequel to the 2012 original (previously discussed on this podcast) dispensed with the commentary on capitalism and gave us everything we wanted from Mike and the boys: more dancing, more skin, and more guys being dudes. But softer box office and softer reviews kept this totally-not-directed-by-Soderbergh-not-at-all sequel out of serious awards contention, excluding some late-year critical reassessment.
This episode, we celebrate Pam’s success with her animated short My Year of Dicks and our high hopes for Mike’s swan song, Magic Mike’s Last Dance. We also discuss Roxanne Gay’s recap, Magic Mike Live, and the film’s genius film ensemble including Jada Pinkett Smith, Andie MacDowell, and Elizabeth Banks.
Topics also include campaign rules, “going to nationals” as a concept, and Joe Manganiello causing your pants to rip.
My name is Kelly Ann Bjork and I am 29 years old. I grew up in a small town in North Jersey with a beautiful loving older sister and two strong parents. I am a Medulloblastoma cancer survivor, I was diagnosed when I was sixteen and going into my junior year of high school. I finished treatment right as my senior year of high school ended then I took a year off before attending University of Delaware where I was on the executive board for UDance, an incredible organization that fights pediatric cancer. I joined a sorority and had all my sisters do the brain tumor walk.
Medulloblastoma is the cancer that Michael Strahan’s daughter has, Isabella. Throughout my journey, I never met a girl around my age because my brain tumor was most common among young boys. I was treated at the best hospitals in the world including Morgan Stanley in New York, Mass General in Massachusetts and MD Anderson in Texas. I had a doctor in Houston, Texas at MD Anderson that specialized in my rare brain tumor named Doctor Vatz. He was one of the most amazing people I have ever met.
So, I would love nothing more than to have the opportunity to communicate with Isabella and share my story, hoping to relate and comfort her. If anyone could help connect us, I would be forever grateful.