Recorded in Hollywood

·31 min·3 clips

Matty worked until 3:45 AM on his musical episode, realizing production work he loves is different from his day job.

The show starts mid-stride. Matty is in Los Angeles, a 35 year old storyteller from Seattle, and he is already talking like the current production job may be about to let him breathe for a bit. That would be new territory. He has been extended before, and most first season shows he has worked on have run past their original schedule. This one may simply end when it said it would. Part of him can see the lost paycheck. An extra week would help. Still, the louder part sounds tired enough to welcome the ending. His parents have just visited, and that detail folds into the rest of the episode instead of sitting off to the side. Family, debt, sleep, work, the whole pile is on the table. Then the episode narrows to one stupidly specific night. Matty had been working on something he liked making, still nudging pieces around at 3:45 in the morning because it was not done yet. He knew the next day would be ugly. At six, Boston shot up because the upstairs neighbor's alarm was going off, and Matty had barely had two hours of sleep. It plays funny for a second, then it lands. He does not really blame Boston. The late night was his own call. But the interruption puts a point on something he had been circling: maybe production does fit him. Even exhausted, even with the thing unfinished, he felt like the work paid him back. For someone who has been testing out whether production is something he can actually do, that messy little answer counts more than a clean theory. The money worries do not disappear. He still talks about owing his parents after spilling water on his computer, then buying a much more expensive one because work required it. Regular production work changes that pressure. If he is in production, he usually will not have to provide the computer himself. The path suddenly feels less like a personal financial gamble. The close is loose and soft: music from Cinderella, the musical, from the fifties, Julie Andrews, a Facebook mention, and a goodbye that feels like the end of a long call.

As heard by us

A 3:45 a.m. push, a 6 a.m. alarm, and a worn-down affection for production work.

Matty is at the edge of the production job he originally signed on for, trying to decide whether the break he has been wanting is finally due. The episode understands work less as a career plot than as a condition a person carries around.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You get a late-night production spiral, a six o'clock alarm, and the tired little clarity that says: this is the work you love, even when it costs you sleep.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from I'll Drink To That