Martini Shot

This is Rob Long and on today’s Martini Shot I describe the classic pose of the buyer and the seller: one person leaning forward at the table, the other leaning back, arms folded. Always know which one you are.

This is Rob Long and on today’s Martini Shot I uncover the secret to show business success, which is: if it worked before, do it again. I mean, you know, make a few changes, but basically do it again.

Today I hang out in a movie theater lobby and watch people enjoying the virtual reality machines more than the movie they came to see. A glimpse of the future.

At a certain point during post-production, when whatever you’re working on is in the editing stage, you have to choose between making an edit that helps the pace, uses the best take, removes an element you no longer need — any number of useful and necessary things — and one that doesn’t show the coffee cup suddenly appearing in the star’s other hand.

Hey, are you busy on Saturday? This Saturday, the sixteenth?

KCRW has been broadcasting the best and freshest music, commentary, news, and astonishing audio for decades — and for about as long, people have been listening to it and loving it and forgetting, or allowing  themselves to forget, that the station really does depend on the commitment of its listeners. 

The universal indicator of the health and prosperity of the entertainment industry — which is, the quality of the free snacks.

What makes a powerful man think that anyone wants to see his naked body, for any reason?

Money and death and weight and all of the things no one wants to talk about.

Rob pitches a simple app that would change the television business forever: something that makes it easy to cancel all of those channels we pay for.

The single most important and revealing document in the entire entertainment business — understand this and you understand Hollywood: the call sheet.

How to be an insider in the business: when you hear big, surprising news for the first time, act like you heard it months and months ago.

Rob learns the difference between real nudity on television, fake nudity on television, real nudity that's pixelated with blurry boxes, and fake real nudity that's pixelated with blurry boxes.

Rob pitches his best stuff to the town and this is what he hears: fun stuff, let us talk internally and get back to you.

Rob learns how to be more present, how to have a more still mind, how not to analyze everything he sees and hears by wondering if there's some angle in it for him. It's a work in progress.

Rob discovers the next Justin Bieber, because it's about time we had another one. This one is from Kazakhstan, and his name is Dimash Kudaibergenov. 

The perfect way for people in the entertainment industry to read the trades without being consumed by jealousy -- or, at least, unnecessary jealousy.

Why you need a joke to cover the cross and a button to end a scene and why some people get that and some people don't.

Rob promotes a lot of stuff on his Instagram feed, or wishes he could, if he had any followers.

Remember the old show business adage, give the people what they want? Rob updates it: just give three million people what they want. The rest of them will be watching home remodeling shows.