Amy Schumer gets into podcast game

‘It’s about comfort’

NEW YORK, June 23, (Agencies): Amy Schumer is used to getting glammed up for red carpets, TV shows and movies, but for her new podcast, it was all about comfort.

“Never will a … be worn,” the Emmy-winning comedian, actress and author said in an interview with The Associated Press.

“Amy Schumer Presents: 3 Girls, 1 Keith” launches recently and was recorded in her apartment with her comedian-best friends Rachel Feinstein, Bridget Everett and Keith Robinson. The original Spotify podcast will be widely available, and Spotify will have additional exclusive content.

“I mean, that was part of the draw,” Schumer said of taping at home without cameras filming. “There’s just such a feeling of us hanging out like we would anyway.”

The casual environment helped set the tone for the weekly podcast, which features Schumer and friends discussing love, relationships, comedy, politics and more. Guests will appear each week; comedian Murray Hill and “Crazy-Ex Girlfriend” actress Rachel Bloom are featured on episode one and two.

Schumer said some of the podcasts she listens to includes “This American Life,” “S-Town,” Esther Perel’s “Where Should We Begin” and “Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations.” But part of the appeal of doing her own was because she’s hadn’t heard any podcast like the one she wanted to produce.

The idea of doing a podcast started as a joke, Schumer said, and she had been thinking about doing it for a year.

“The goals were to make us all some money and just to hang out, honestly,” she said, adding that the podcast will let listeners “be a fly on the wall, just hearing casual conversation with friends and then also sometimes, maybe learn something or hear a perspective they didn’t have before.”

Schumer

Discuss

Schumer and friends also discuss their personal lives on “3 Girls, 1 Keith.” She tied the knot in February and said she’s enjoying married life.

“It’s funny, before you’re married, people don’t really tell you, but then once you get married, you talk to other married couples and they’re like, ‘Marriage is awesome!’ And you’re like, ‘Yes, it is,’” she said.

“It was like a secret, because they don’t want to tell you because they don’t want you to be jealous or something. But it’s nice. I don’t think it’s totally necessary, but if you’re into it, it’s pretty dope.”

Schumer has had major success on TV, in movies, on comedy tours in arenas where pop stars perform, and even Broadway, earning herself a Tony nomination this year. When asked what advice she has for young female comedians, she said: “I would actually not give any different advice to a female comic then I would to a male comic.”

“Not for any reason other than the advice is really the same. It’s because it’s not harder for female comics, it’s just harder for females ... (it’s) even harder than that for people of color in terms of equality and just like stuff that they’re going to encounter,” she added.

“But for comedy, I would always just say to any performer, ‘There’s nothing like just doing it.’ As much stage time as possible. I wish there’s some other thing, but that’s really the truth — you just have to do it. You have to do it and do it so much that it has to be all that you care about until you don’t care anymore.”

A judge cleared the way Friday for Kanye West to face trial for allegedly duping fans into subscribing to the Tidal streaming service to hear the rap superstar’s album “The Life of Pablo.”

A fan is seeking a class-action case — in which other disgruntled fans could join and win damages — after West tweeted that the 2016 album would only be available on Tidal, the platform spearheaded by fellow rapper Jay-Z.

West tweeted that his album “will never never never be on Apple” — but, with Tidal trailing in subscriber numbers, his album became available six weeks later on the tech giant’s streaming service Apple Music as well as largest streaming platform Spotify.

Argued

The rapper’s lawyers argued that his statement was true when made and that, as he was repeatedly fine-tuning “The Life of Pablo” on Tidal, the album was effectively a new, remastered version when it went live on other platforms.

Gregory Woods, a federal judge in New York, called West’s argument “tenuous.”

“Regardless of whether or not Mr. West’s argument will persuade a jury at a later stage in the case, the court has little difficulty concluding that the (plaintiff) plausibly pleads that Mr West’s statement that his album would never never never be on Apple Music or for sale was false,” Woods wrote.

He largely cleared Tidal’s parent company Aspiro, saying that its tweet about “The Life of Pablo” — saying “it’s streaming exclusively on Tidal.com” — was indeed correct at the time.

But complicating the case, the judge said there was no reason for it to move forward in New York as both the plaintiff, Justin Baker-Rhett, and West live in California. Aspiro had requested moving the trial from California to New York.

Baker-Rhett enjoyed a one-month free subscription to Tidal and then paid $9.99 for a second month before he canceled. A self-described fan of West, he said he would never have signed up had he known it would be available elsewhere.

The chaos over “The Life of Pablo” has led to a feud, fought through song lyrics, between onetime collaborators West and Jay-Z.

Despite the star power behind it, Tidal has struggled to catch up with Spotify and Apple Music. Tidal saw a burst of new app downloads last weekend when Jay-Z and his wife Beyonce released a surprise joint album, “Everything is Love,” exclusively on the platform.

But in a telling sign, the couple kept it as a Tidal exclusive for barely a day before distributing it widely.