Thought you all would dig this! Shemspeed conducts an exclusive Gossip Girl type interview with Matthue Roth about life, payos and his new book “Losers” (and by Gossip Girl we mean that all interaction was done through texting.)
Shemspeed: We heard a rumor from the stylist at HBO’s Def Poetry that if they had cut yoru payot off right then before the show, your life would have drastically changed. is this true?
Matthue: Anything, really, can drastically change your life — from what you wear on the day you meet your true love to how you smell when you get on the subway car. But, yeah, the payos have kind of guided me around. They’ve been my holy antennae.
Shemspeed: Do you view them now as a relgious thing or, because it has become such a part of your overall artistic aesthetic, more of a fashion statement?
Matthue: I thought about cutting them off recently. I wanted to make sure I was doing religion for the right thing, and not for the show — you constantly question these things, I think, especially when you’re around non-religious people, on stage or at work. But then I felt like if I cut them off, I’d be doing *that* for other people. So I tried to tuck them under my yarmulke. But my hair’s too frizzy and it didn’t work. So, I guess we’re stuck together.
Shemspeed: You’ve published a slew of books, mostly marketed towards teens. We always thoughts that writing books was a way to pick up girls. what do you have to say about your motivation to publish books for teens as someone over ten years older than the audience?
Matthue: I don’t think it’s about where you are, but where your mind is. I never really grew much past the age of 15 — I mean, I still pull my wife’s ponytail. But I also think there’s a freshness when you’re 15. You’re still looking at the world like it has secrets you want to discover, or like it’s a total hell. But you’re excited about it; and that’s the part that I want to keep going strong.
Shemspeed: thats a great outlook! It’s like when you become 70
and were 20 in the 70s… so all the clothes you wear are still from that era.
Matthue: Dude, I hope I can keep it fresh at 70. Like James Brown (zt”l) or something. The way he danced, it was like he was telling his bones who was boss.
Shemspeed: How does “Losers” differ from your two previous books or say, the movie that Jason Biggs did.
Matthue: For one thing, Losers is about secular Jews. It’s as much a part of me as Goldbergs, although that feels really weird to say — writing about an Orthodox punk kid, it’s obvious. But the way Jupiter, from Losers, sees the world, he’s curious and insecure and geeky and he overanalyzes everything….
Shemspeed: Any relation to Alvi Singer or Nathan Zuckerman
Matthue: ha!
Matthue: There’s a tradition, I can’t deny that. But he’s much more like, I think, Ferris Bueller or the dude in Everything Is Illuminated. Someone who’s popular, who everybody either loves or hates, but operates on a totally different channel than the rest of the world.
Shemspeed: What do you do when you get that first copy of your published book?
Matthue: I read it. I check out the way the chapter titles turned out (I’m obsessed with fonts. The fonts in Losers are awesome). Then I put it next to my favorite books of other people’s and see how their spines go together — the yellow goes well with anything black.
Shemspeed: that sounds like something a WRITER woudl do. do you have any other celebratory traditions? Anything that could get you on Page Six?
Matthue: Yeah, I know! I’m weird. But that’s the big one. Well, that and giving it to my baby to chew on. It’s the color of everything toxic in the house, so of course she goes straight to it and sticks it in her mouth.
Shemspeed: That sounds like something a WRITER would do. do
you have any other celebratory traditions? Anything that could get you on Page Six?
Matthue: Yeah, I know! I’m weird. But that’s the big one. Well, that and giving it to my baby to chew on. It’s the color of everything toxic in the house, so of course she goes straight to it and sticks it in her mouth.
Shemspeed: Are you aware that people are going to now be making Loser jokes to/with you from now till you are 120?
Matthue: Are you kidding? I’m the one who started most of them. Good thing the sequel is called “#1 Hottest Rock Star On the Planet.”
Shemspeed: how do you spell tushay?
Matthue: is this part of the interview?
Shemspeed: yes
Matthue: Tushy, i guess.
Shemspeed: haaaa! thanks for the interview!
Matthue: Thanks for having me!
(p.s. kids its spelled touche)
P.P.S. Buy the book from either matthue.com or losersbook.blogspot.com to receive extra special bonus goodies and CDs and stuff!
