Joy Holley’s collection of short fiction Dream Girl published by Te Herenga Waka University Press is an amazing read. I loved talking to Joy about it.
Joy chose as a starting point to talk about laughter and writing the 2022 film Bodies Bodies Bodies. This American black comedy horror film directed by Halina Reijn, in her English-language debut, with a screenplay by Sarah DeLappe from a story by Kristen Roupenian. It stars Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Myha'la Herrold, Chase Sui Wonders, Rachel Sennott, Lee Pace, and Pete Davidson.
I really liked how this conversation concentrated a lot on joy and pleasure which is perhaps something that has been missing from these conversations about comedy.
I also loved talking about the way Joy is reimagining some elements of horror and the surreal.
I have a signed copy of Dream Girl to give away. Simply leave a comment here on Instagram or reply to the story on Twitter by June 11 and I’ll do a draw and send it to the winner.
I think this conversation was quite influenced by an amazing book I’m reading by Nuar Alsadir called Animal Joy: A Book of Laughter and Resuscitation. This book is literally changing my life. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s ostensibly about a psychoanalyst who goes to clown school and investigates humour in an incredibly inciteful way. The book is also making me feel a bit stupid, so many of the things I say that I think are profound are all described here as the stock and trade of psychoanalysis.
Ep 31: Bill Nelson Talks about Two Poems
Ep 30 Aaron Lister: Fiona Pardington's A Beautiful Hesitation
Ep 29: Simon Sweetman and Pip Adam talk about Stranger Music by Leonard Cohen
Ep 28 Porirua People's Library
Ep 27 Sarah Jane Barnett: The Time of the Giants by Anne Kennedy
Ep 26 Work by Sarah Jane Barnett
Ep 25 Rebel Moon: An AK Benefit
Ep 24 R.H.I. by Tim Corballis
Ep 23 Pukeahu: An Exploratory Anthology
Ep 22 Joe Buchanan: Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
Ep 21 Lynn Jenner: Lost and Gone Away
Ep 20 Natasha Dennerstein: The Bengal Engine's Mango Afterglow by Geoff Cochrane
Ep 19 Carl Shuker: 10th Anniversary of The Method Actors
Ep 18 Overland Launch
Ep 17 Clare Needham: The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Ep 16 Helen Heath: Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
Ep 15 John Summers: The Scarecrow by Ronald Hugh Morrieson
Ep 14: Dougal McNeill: Writing the 1926 General Strike by Charles Ferrall and Dougal McNeill
Ep 12 William Brandt: Under the Skin by Michel Faber
Ep 11 Tayo Aluko: Call Mr Robeson by Tayo Aluko
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