The History of Concrete

0:00[♪ INTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Brian Lear on WNIC. So, ComCRETE may be the world's most widely used building material, but it isn't widely considered the most stimulating or funniest topic of conversation, but despite that general consensus, the comedian and documentary in John Wilson decided to make a feature length movie about it called The History. Of concrete, you might know John Wilson from his HBO series How To With John Wilson, where he gave you the tools you need to understand important life topic, topics like small talk and wine tasting, and kind of similar to how that show worked. The documentary is about concrete, yes, but it's not only about concrete. Let's just say it, he goes off on a million random tangents. There's a side plot about a guy who removes gum from the sidewalk, hilarious. Another about a business that preserves people's tattoos, post-mortem,

1:03and it even features surreptitious footage from the dinner he intended with Kim Kardashian. So, for today's purposes, we're going to focus mostly on the more concrete side of things. Again, John Wilson's first feature length documentary is called The History Of Concrete. Comes out tomorrow. John, thanks so much for doing a kind of radio trailer with us. Welcome to WNIC and congrats on your first feature film. Yes, thank you for having me. I can't believe I'm talking to you. And back at you, you wanted to make a documentary in the style of a hallmark movie. And your film does a very good job of educating the viewers on what the hallmark movie formula is. Would you give our listeners the short version of that? Oh, yeah. I condense it within the movie as well. But, yeah, this writer, Sarah Montana, she gave this class. And there are a few rules like, you can't mention Jesus or Christianity in any hallmark Christmas movie.

2:09And stuff like how you get bonus points for dead relatives or if there's a big community event that needs planning, that's always good. And it was also funny that she said to not interrupt a kiss with a phone call because audiences supposedly hate that. And they've made that very clear. And so maybe I'm just dense, but intuitively that hallmark formula doesn't easily apply to concrete. What am I missing? You're not missing anything. Yeah, I like to try to connect things that you wouldn't really think to connect. But with the hallmark formula, I really wanted to investigate the fact that it is one of the only cable networks that's currently growing right now. And it's kind of because of the cyclical nature of the storytelling and the comfort that gives you.

3:14So I tried to both embrace but betray the hallmark rules in equal measure throughout the film to see where I stand, but also to have a set of rules to guide the film. So here's a clip from near the beginning of the movie, which is of a Zoom meeting with your agent and other industry executives. You're trying to sell the idea. The agent speaks first, then John. Did you have a sense of how you want to put that together as sort of a sales tape? I have. It's about two and a half, three minutes right now. What's the working title again? The history of concrete. Okay. So the pregnant pause before he says, okay, and then the hallmark music. Was that the general reaction when you told people the name as you were trying to sell the idea? They didn't sound wildly enthusiastic there. I know. Yeah. The pitches did, yeah, it kind of went exactly like that where, you know, the,

4:22you couldn't really, it's, if they did laugh, it seemed almost to be out of pity that I was pursuing this idea to begin with. And yeah, it's not, you know, it's not the kind of thing that everyone wants to make, I guess. But I just realized after, you know, the 10th or 11th pitch meeting that failed, that I just needed to go out and do it and that I was kind of doing it already. And when you finally have something after enough time, I think that's the best proof of anything, you know, so it's just like just getting off your butt and getting out of the house. It's the most important thing. Now listeners, we don't have a lot of time in this segment for calls and texts and maybe a tough ask, but we are opening the phones for your calls on concrete or anything related, like hallmarked movie plots or anything you always wanted to ask John Wilson how to do, but didn't have them over

5:22for small talk or maybe you actually saw John filming around Ridgewood Queens and are glad to finally know what he's been up to after his how-to series, 212433, WNYC 212433, 9692. Why concrete? What could you interested in concrete? Well, you know, it's kind of, I really wanted this to be larger in scope than anything that I'd done before. And I mean, the foundation to my house was cracking and my basement was flooding, and that's kind of where it started, you know, in real like, you know, in the chronology of everything, but I don't know. I just, I thought it was really hard. It seemed like a really hard subject to make funny and that's the kind of challenge that I usually like to give myself. So because, I don't know, yeah. Yeah. So here's another clip from a section of the film where you went to several concrete

6:27conventions. Who knew that was a thing? The first one's just, I guess, to do a little scene setting of the vibe of the event about 30 seconds. Absolutely incredible shot. Steve, it just feel bird. Eat your heart out. Yeah, I have to ask in a docu comedy, because I bet many of the listeners are wondering this. Was that real? Is the whole thing real? And then you put it together in an amusing way? Or, you know, was this actually something you made up?

7:27Meg, what, what, what, what did I make up? What could I, I feel like this, I didn't have, I definitely did not have the resources this time around to make anything up. Not that I did with the show, either, but yeah, I mean, the concrete convention is a real thing that happens. There are multiple every year. The industry is massive. And yeah, they have these kind of brick lane competitions that, you know, show the pride they have in building walls as quickly as possible. And, you know, I kind of just wanted this to be, I don't know, I wanted this to be kind of almost like the prequel to the show in a way, because it is the foundation on which everything else is built. It's kind of like wicked. How'd you get along with the concrete guys? I mean, you do come from, let's say, different socioeconomic cultures for the most part, no? Yeah, I, well, I did notice a lot of strange crossover between the entertainment and film industries

8:29and the concrete industry. You know, I met some guy in a bar that's in the film who works in concrete sales, but then he also turned out to be an actor that was trying to make it in the independent film scene in New York. And I go and shadow him on an independent film shoot. And, but, you know, also, that guy who says, you know, talking about Steven Spielberg, I think that there is, there is some crossover between entertainment and celebrity and this idea of kind of concrete and real estate. And, you know, I think that the film kind of investigates the danger between concrete and real estate or real estate and celebrity in a certain way. Some listeners trying and probably failing to be funny. Someone writes concrete, I would prefer something more abstract. And someone else wrote, wait, I thought this film would be about the mafia and not the foundation of his house. But then we have Chelsea in Brooklyn, you know, on WNYC

9:31with John Wilson. Hi, Chelsea. Hi, I have kind of a funny little tidbit. I wonder if John is aware of and maybe I'll find out when I see the film tomorrow evening. The high school that I went to in Northampton, Pennsylvania, the mascot is known as the concrete kid. So I'm not sure if you're aware of this. But yeah, and it's spelled with like a K in concrete. So you have that concrete kid alliteration of the K. But yeah, just whenever the conversation of mascots comes up, I kind of have people beat. Sounds like that should be in the sequel, John. Yes, yes, that's exactly what the financeers want to hear on the next round of phase. Michelle in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC with John Wilson. Hi, Michelle. Hi, excited to be with you guys. So my family is in the ready mix concrete business.

10:35And my father has two ready mix concrete plants in Rhode Island. And I've been exposed to this my whole life. And the entertainment is found in the people that install the foundations, the form guys, and also the the gentleman that pumped the concrete highly entertaining. I would spend my Sunday afternoon driving around with my father looking at holes in the ground. And it's really interesting. And it gives you a new perspective on real estate at a very young age. And I would really love a sequel to this. Maybe aggregate. Also, I'm not even interested. Michelle, thank you. And so kind of to her point, you learned a lot about concrete making this film. So here's one more clip of narration from the documentary that comes in right after that concrete conference or convention. You have never once questioned this material

11:38before. But everything you learned so far made you feel like we were in danger somehow. But everyone here just seemed to be in a state of bliss enjoying the lifestyle that the concrete business provides for them. When you left one of the conventions, you took a look at the contract that you signed with them. And the fine print said that you agreed to not portray concrete in a negative light. You're still not sure what that means. But you're not loving it. Ha. So like Michelle and Brooklyn who grew up with it on an emotional level, John, did you come away from making the documentary feeling differently about concrete than you did before? Yeah, I think that it was just kind of just a surface to me before. I never really thought about it.

12:40But I mean, the more research I did and the more people I talked to, I realized that not only how passion that the people were within the industry, but also equally how passionate the kind of environmentalists were in sounding an alarm about how a kind of little sand we will have left pretty soon for making concrete. There's a few, yeah, this is a really good book called The World in a Grain that's, it speaks like all about sand and the different applications for it. It basically makes up everything. But yeah, I think I didn't want this to be a really a super environmentalist film. I didn't want to, I don't want it to be like watching a dog get hit by a car or something. So that's where the comedy came in. And I think your call was right. There's a lot of funny personalities within the industry. And it was just like such a blast

13:46to be able to explore it. John Wilson is a comedian, documentary filmmaker and the creator of the HBO series How To With John Wilson. His new documentary comes out in theaters tomorrow and it's called The History of Concrete. I don't have a list here. Do you know anywhere where it's playing in or around New York City? Yeah, I mean, it's at IFC. It's going to be playing at low cinema, the cinema that I opened with a couple of good friends recently. And yeah, there's a handful of other places. And if it's a smash hit, maybe we'll see some other. John Wilson hallmark movie formula documentaries in 2028 or so. Thanks, John. Thank you so much. Brian Lara at WNYC, Stay tuned for Halicim. WNYC's journalism and storytelling is heard by millions of passionate listeners, sponsors of our programming gain our listeners attention and their respect. Learn about how your

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