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Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. In case you missed it, we had some great conversations this week. We talked about the politics of hysterectomies. We talked about a documentary that shows how a country can lose an independent press. Yes, I'm looking at you, Russia. We had something that made you feel good. We had the gorgeous music from Rachael & Vilray live in our studio yesterday. You can listen to All Of It by going to the show's website at WNYC.org, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Now, on with the show.

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Writer and comedian Bill Posley is one of the executive producers on the hit Apple comedy series Shrinking. His writing credits include Cobra Kai, Kenan, and The Neighborhood. Things are a little different with this new one-man show, The Day I Accidentally Went to War. It starts with the audience themselves being "processed" like new military recruits, and once the audience is seated, Bill shares his unexpected path to joining the National Guard, graduating boot camp on 9/11, being deployed to Iraq, and the chaos that came with coming home. The Day I Actually Went to War runs at the Soho Playhouse through August 30th, and Bill Posley joins me now in studio. It's really nice to meet you.

Bill Posley: Nice to meet you. Thank you so much for having me.

Alison Stewart: You write about comedy. This is a veteran experience. What made you say, "Oh, that's a good idea, comedy and a veteran experience."?

Bill Posley: I think, when you take a look at my career, things like Shrinking, there's a balance of trauma and comedy. I think that comedy is proof, or at least part of the process to being on the other side of trauma, and being able to laugh at something, means that you are in the process of moving through it, and so I love being able to turn things that we find dark or dramatic into comedy, because I think that is literally the best medicine.

Alison Stewart: This isn't your first solo show. You had that play [unintelligible 00:02:25] that one-man play, The Day I Became Black, a similar exploration of your personal journey. What do you appreciate about the one-man show format?

Bill Posley: I just love being able to sit there and connect intimately with the audience. That is one of my favorite things to do, and being able to tell a story with them. A lot of my shows are interactive, so I actually get to be a part of incorporating them into the show.

Alison Stewart: Oh, yes.

Bill Posley: I really, really love that aspect of it. As you know, in this show, I'm taking the audience through their own version of basic training. They get to work together as a team, and they get to graduate, and they get to have all of these really interesting experiences that I don't think I would get a chance to do in a traditional play, and so I love that aspect of being able to actually immerse the audience and myself with them in the one-person format. It's so much fun, and me and the audience get to have so much fun together.

Alison Stewart: All right. What happens when you get somebody who crosses both arms, is like, "Nope, not going to do it."

Bill Posley: [chuckles] Well, I try and build in ice breakers and things like that before the show, so I hope to disarm them, and make them feel like they're-- I'm not asking them personally, but I'm asking them as an entire room to participate in this, and so it really makes it feel they're joining in with their "fellow soldiers" as they're going through this experience.

Alison Stewart: Have you always known that you wanted to explore your experience as a veteran in a play?

Bill Posley: Oh, man, no. This was one of the hardest things I've ever had a chance to write, because, how do you make something this funny, right? That's really been tough. I did my first one-person show, and I was like, "Okay, here comes the next one," and then seven years later, six years later, it took me to write the show, just because there was such a barrier to entry when you're talking about the veteran experience.

I really didn't know how to make it palatable for people who didn't know anything about the military, or felt a certain way about the military, so I wanted to figure out what was the best delivery system for this information, and not to mention, I also wanted to make sure that I was telling the story of me, and the people who served with me accurately, so I made sure to call up all the people I served with, and was like, "Do you guys remember it this way?" They're like, "Yes, yes, yes, we do. Okay, you're good."

I'm like, "What should I say?" They're like, "Oh, don't forget to tell this story." I was like, "Oh, okay, great." There was a lot of conversations, fact-finding that I really wanted to go through. I also wanted to make it, so that people who maybe don't know anything about the military, or don't even-- Or feel a certain way about the military, and people who are pro-military are both brought in, and the people who feel a certain way about the military, I hope that they have a different perspective on what it means to be a veteran, and I hope that people who are pro-military are informed a little bit about how veterans are treated, and question how the military leaves veterans unsupported.

Alison Stewart: It's interesting, because later on in the play, a flag comes on stage, a picture of a flag, and I have to imagine that, that portion of the show changed from day 1 to 2025.

Bill Posley: Oh, yes. I mean, it changed to yesterday.

Alison Stewart: Yesterday. Yes, it is--[crosstalk]

Bill Posley: I mean it's like, "Yes, yes." I mean, I put that image up, and we talk about it. We have a real conversation about the evolution of that image, both how I feel about it, how I felt about it, how I continue to feel about it, and how that image has become polarizing in our society depending on who's looking at it, and what it represents, and so I really love that moment in the show, because I think it's a where everybody's on board, and they all have their version of what that means to them, and we actually get to explore it, and we make each other laugh as we're doing it as well.

Alison Stewart: I'm speaking with comedian and writer Bill Posley. He's here to discuss his new one-man show at Soho Playhouse, The Day I Accidentally Went to War. It's playing through August 30th. The beginning of the show, though, we learn about you. We learn about your childhood. We learn that you're husky, husky guy, you like the Backstreet Boys, you had an elf blanket, and we learn about your parents. What did you want us to know about your parents? What did you think was important for us to know about your parents, considering what else was going to happen in the show?

Bill Posley: Yes, I think the big part about learning about my parents, and even more so learning about my situation, is I wanted to give a different story as to why somebody would join the military. People have this picture of their head of what a veteran is, and how somebody is just gung-ho, and wants to go overseas, and just join the army,

I wanted to show that there are circumstances sometimes for people that actually make it, so they don't really feel they have a choice, or feel like it's the only option if they want to get out of their situation, and so I had to paint a picture of the situation, and so that's why you learn about my parents. Also, later in the show, when it's time to come home, I wanted people to have a connection with my family, so that way when they saw me come home, they realized the people I was coming home to, and weren't getting to know them for the very, very first time.

Alison Stewart: Hearing you talk, you speak so eloquently. You have such beautiful language. You were a crap student.

[laughter]

Can I just say that in high school?

Bill Posley: Yes.

Alison Stewart: That was a big part of it for you, honestly?

Bill Posley: Yes, it was a big part of it. Not everybody's really great at test-taking, and some people-- Look, I was getting a C in gym class. It was that bad all across the board. Yes, when I got to my senior year, and they showed me my progress report, and I was ranked 211 out of 266, I was like, "Oh, okay." My parents not really being able to afford for me to go to college. I had a 2.3 GPA, and [chuckles] I remember going googling on the Internet. Is that a good GPA? Literally, AI wrote back, "The answer is, 'No'."

It was daunting because I really wanted to pursue a four-year school, and I wanted to get out of the community that I was in, and it didn't feel I really had many options, and so the military presented an opportunity for me to do that, and I was like, "All right, I'll sign up, do my part time work. This is going to be great. I'm going to get to go to school." Then, bang. Everything changed. On 9/11.

Alison Stewart: You were supposed to graduate on 9/11?

Bill Posley: Yes. From basic training, yes. I mean, it's the wild-- It's the most ironic-- It's insane that the day I was supposed to walk the parade field to graduate, is the day my life changed, because at that point it was peaceful times. We had no issues, nothing was going on, so I was like, "Oh, I'm going to coast. I'm going to get my college education. I'll do my one week in a month, two weeks a year." Then, before I knew it, man, I was 18 months later, boots on ground in Iraq.

Alison Stewart: Is that what you mean about you accidentally went to war?

Bill Posley: [laughs] Yes. That's what I mean when I say, "I accidentally went to war." It was a hundred percent my choice to sign up for the military, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. To this day, the men and women I served with, the people I got a chance going through-- What the military gave me as far as discipline and values and morals, and a work ethic, I am so grateful for all of those experiences. Looking back on them now, honestly, I wouldn't be the person I am today.

I still wake up every day between 4:00 and five o' clock in the morning, get my work done, do a workout, do all the things before I even start my job, you know what I mean? I owe that to the military, and my experience there, and then the people who are still in my life, my brothers and sisters who have served with me, they're some of my best friends. They're closer to me than some people in my own family, and so I love that, but if you had told me at the time when I was going to sign up that I would be going to war, I wouldn't have, [chuckles] so it's crazy.

Alison Stewart: The show is funny, but then it deals with really heavy issues, and then it's funny again, and then it deals with identity. In what ways was it difficult for you to find humor in this?

Bill Posley: Yes, comedy is the most subjective thing on planet Earth. What's funny to one person is not funny-- What's funny to me is not funny to other people, and so some of the things that are difficult, or trying to make light of losing fellow soldiers, trying to make light of discovering what happened on 9/11. Trying to make light of my parents going bankrupt, and not having any money for--[crosstalk]

Alison Stewart: Iraqi children just being frightened of you.

Bill Posley: [chuckles] Yes, yes, yes. Iraqi children being frightened of me. You take those subjects, and on the surface, I mean, they're universally sad. They're universally sad. There's no way around that, but I think that, like I said, when you think about some of the work that I've gotten to do on shows like Shrinking, where you're dealing with the loss of a mother and a family, and a father who is now trying to re-engage with his daughter.

On the surface, that does not sound funny, but I think when you talk about my honest feelings and emotions during that time, that's where it becomes relatable. When something traumatic becomes relatable, that's when I think it can become funny, so I do my best to try and bring the audience along with me, so they may not have experienced it, but they at least understand where I'm coming from. If they can understand where I'm coming from, then, man, I think we can laugh about it. I really do.

Alison Stewart: Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a character on Shrinking who's a vet.

Bill Posley: Yes.

Alison Stewart: Are you involved with that character, in writing that character?

Bill Posley: Yes, I do. I'm not the only person who writes for that character. We all-- There's a great writers room. Everybody in that writer's room is so talented. I just want to shout them out right now, because they're amazing, and like a family to me. Also, I'm grateful for Bill Lawrence and Neil Goldman, because they always ask me my experience and listen.

Alison Stewart: Oh, interesting.

Bill Posley: Listen to it authentically, and allow me to share, so that we can make that character's experience authentic. Those guys have been so supportive, not just of me writing for that character on the show, but also just me doing this show as well. You know what I mean? Those guys have been amazing about giving me opportunities to go and perform while we're in the room and all of that stuff, so it's been such a special experience on that show. It really has. It's been awesome.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Bill Posley. His show is called The Day I Accidentally Went to War at the Soho Playhouse, through August 30th. How long were you in Iraq?

Bill Posley: I was in Iraq-- The army, the way it works, the army is 12 months, boots on ground, so once you enter-- Literally, once you cross into the border of Iraq, you're there for 12 months until you cross back out, but then you have to do what's called mobilizing, so you're activated, and then you have to get your equipment, get your gear, go train, travel to Iraq, travel to Kuwait, crossover, come back, go out of Kuwait, deprocess, all that stuff. On the other ends, that's a month and a half, and a month and a half, so the amount of time I was actually away from my home was about 15.

Alison Stewart: When you came home, what did you expect would happen?

Bill Posley: Man, I thought they were going to pop confetti. I thought I was going to be-- I thought somebody was going to be running at me--

Alison Stewart: With flowers.

Bill Posley: Flowers. Just tossing it. You know what I mean? I was going to be kissing babies, and it was going to be great, because that's the way they show it on TV. It wasn't that. When we came home, it was, we landed at an airport, and then we got on a bus, and then we went to this parking lot. [chuckles] I don't even know if my parents were there. I think I got a ride with somebody else, because of the time of day, it was hard for my parents to get there, and so I finally got-- It was such a underwhelming experience. [chuckles]

That's kind of funny now. I think if you were to ask-- It's so funny. If you were to ask my dad, he'd be like, "You guys came home when the Red Sox were on. What are you, crazy?"

[laughter]

"Why would they schedule that?" It was like that kind of-- My mom's like, "I don't drive in the evenings. I don't trust the light." [laughs]

Alison Stewart: It was a little bit of like, "See you, bye."

Bill Posley: Yes, and because, obviously, my parents love--

Alison Stewart: It's upsetting.

Bill Posley: Yes, but obviously my parents, my family-

Alison Stewart: They're closer to you--[crosstalk]

Bill Posley: -but they don't know. They think you're just coming up, "Yay, he's back." They don't know that there's an entirely different person who's returned home.

Alison Stewart: Yes.

Bill Posley: You know what I mean? It's a shocking development. I talked about this in the show, which is like, "Guys, we see all of those--," man, I love them. You see the veteran return home movies on YouTube, and they're so inspirational, and we cry and we feel better, and all this stuff. Once that camera goes off, that person's now home, and it's real hard, and it's not easy, and that's the stuff I want to talk about.

I've seen a lot of war movies, and I've seen a lot of that coming home story, but oftentimes it's portrayed-- Sometimes it's disabled vets, or maybe they're suicidal, or things like that, and that is true, and I do want to honor that experience. I also just want to talk about just how hard it is to get a job. How hard it is-- That's some of the stuff that I bring up. How hard it is to be in a relationship. How hard it is to go work at a bank when, two months, and have people yell at you for not being able to process their payment, and you're like, "Do you know that six months ago, I was--[laughs]

Alison Stewart: I was in the middle of Iraq with a gun.

Bill Posley: Everybody-- I was a hero. Do you understand that?" Also, I think I'm in a unique situation, because I was over there around 18, 19 years old, and so I wasn't even-- My frontal cortex hadn't even been fully developed yet. There were guys I was there with who were 35, 40 years old, and they knew who they were at that point. They were established.

They had wife, they had kids. They were figuring out how to, but me, I didn't even know what I was doing. It's just so interesting because you're like, "I can't rent a car. I can't drink, but I can carry a gun and do this," so there's-- It's a completely different experience for somebody like that. Yes, I talk about that, and help people understand what I was going through, through that time.

Alison Stewart: You talk about trying to get help from the VA, and being denied disability for PTSD, because they said there was no evidence.

Bill Posley: Yes. [laughs]

Alison Stewart: Despite you going to war. You received a letter that said, "Dear William Posley, we made the following decision regarding your claim service connection for post-traumatic stress disorder is denied, because the medical evidence on record fails to show that this disability has clinically been diagnosed. We have not found that you experienced a stressful event in service, including fear of hostile military, or terroristic activity." We'll talk about the writing another time.

Bill Posley: Yes.

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: How widespread are these disability denials in the military from guys you know?

Bill Posley: Oh, I mean, this is a tale as old as time. I am one of millions of veterans who consistently fight for benefits at the VA. The system is antiquated. It is so cumbersome. It is so difficult. You're asking people who may have mental and emotional trauma, trying to figure-- Then, you put stacks and stacks of paperwork in front of them, and it becomes so overwhelming that you just shut down, you feel paralyzed, or you get denied once, and the truth is, everyone will tell you, "Well, you have to keep fighting. You have to keep trying. You have to keep applying. You have to keep doing that stuff."

At a certain point, you just start to feel like you don't even have the energy to do it anymore, and you just feel like, "Oh, my God, nobody cares. They don't care. It's too much." That's one of the problems with what's going on currently, is there's talk of 83,000 jobs being cut from the VA support staff, and it's like, that's to help veterans figure out and navigate the logistics of all of this stuff that's happening.

I did the show last night, and I had a woman come up to me and say, "Please do not stop trying to get your benefits. My husband has been fighting for decades to do it, and he finally got it, and it's worth it. It's like a decade." "What? Are you crazy?" I have to keep showing up and do it. It just seems so, so hard. Every veteran I know who's been through that experience talks about it, and it's something I want to continue to shed light to on this show, because we're not done. It's not done. You know what I mean? I wanted to make that not just poignant, but also funny, but also make sure people know what we're going through.

Alison Stewart: We're talking to Bill Posley about his show, The Day I Accidentally Went to War. We'll have more after a quick break. This is All Of It.

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You're listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. I'm speaking with comedian and writer Bill Posley. He's here to discuss his new one-man show at Soho Playhouse, The Day I Accidentally Went to War, which is playing now through August 30th. The show challenges stereotypes about who a veteran is. Right off the top, you say that seeing a vet isn't a monolithic idea. What do you mean by that?

Bill Posley: Yes, I think that, oftentimes, we have in our minds this Rambo, Arnold Schwarzenegger guy running around or whatever, and if I came-- I mean, Rambo would eat me. [chuckles] I'm so-- You know what I mean? I was not born to be some tough army guy when I was growing up, you know what I mean? I was a very sensitive kid. I was also-- Growing up, I was also a fat kid who was completely unathletic. You're like, "How did this person wind up in the military?"

I think I want to broaden people's horizons, and like any sect of society, people cast judgments, and have the ability to prejudge somebody before they even get a chance to meet them, and I want to change that narrative, because what I love so much about the show, is you have all these people show up, and they sit next to each other, and they talk to each other, and they get to know each other, and then at the end of the show, I say, "How many people in here are veterans?"

Then, veterans raise their hands, and people are floored at the people who are-- I'm floored. I'm still shocked at who's a veteran and who isn't, you know what I mean? I've been in so many situations, where veterans have spoken to me about policies, not knowing that I'm a vet, or have spoken to me about things that they believe without knowing I'm a vet, and so I find it so amazing that nobody even to this day does veteran ring true for me when they first see me, because of what we think a veteran is.

Alison Stewart: Yes. You describe yourself as a biracial, bisexual, feminist vet who is pro-football, pro-gun, pro-choice, believes in God, RuPaul's Drag Race, and that someone should knock Elon out.

Bill Posley: [laughs] Yes, I think that.

Alison Stewart: Still believe in all that?

Bill Posley: Yes, yes, yes. I speak to that point, because, I think that we live in-- I personally think that we currently live in a society, where you don't get to have that much of a complex, nuanced take on life. You're either this or this, or you believe in this or this, and because of that, you get siphoned off into one side of the line, or another side of the line. When I think the majority of us are just complex and nuanced people, and we're trying to figure it all out, and we don't believe in one thing, and that's the only thing. We believe in a whole lot of things.

That's what the army taught me, because it brings people from all these different walks of life together, and they are forced to coexist and be a team, and so I want us to share more of those complexities with each other, because, I think if people opened up a little bit more about all the things that they loved, or felt were important, or believed in, we'd start to actually connect a little bit more on the things we have in common, than the things that we don't.

I'm telling you, that is one of the best parts of being in the military. It's one of the best parts about being in basic training, is that, all these people, like I said, come from different walks of life, but when you're there in order to be a team, in order for us to coexist, you actually are forced to find the commonalities in order to work together, and I love that experience. It was the best.

Alison Stewart: You're on stage by yourself for the whole show. How do you mentally prepare for that?

Bill Posley: Oh, yes, that is-- I have a playlist, I have a coffee order--

[laughter]

Yes, when you do that, I often, sometimes think of it as-- I think of it musically. That is really the best way to put it, especially, with the one-man show. That kind of experience and interaction with the audience, it really does feel like you are conducting music, and you're watching, and when they're laughing, and you're playing with when they're crying, and you guys are vibing off of each other, and it feels so much more like that than it does a performance, like a traditional storytelling performance. It really does feel like music. You and the audience are creating music together, and it's special. It's a very, very special feeling.

Alison Stewart: Do you have a moment every night that still gets you?

Bill Posley: Man, yep. Whoo. Try not to cry right now, but-

Alison Stewart: You can cry.

Bill Posley: -it's when I come home and I see my-- There's a video of me coming home, and I get to see my parents. [crying] [chuckles] Oh, man.

Alison Stewart: That's worth crying over.

Bill Posley: I know, but let me tell you, having to edit that video was hard. [chuckles] I had to sit there and watch that thing. [chuckles] I swear 400 times, and you just have to keep seeing them every time hug you, tell you they love you, come home, and so there are some performances, where I play it, and I just have to go to the back of the room, because I'm like, "Oh, man. I have to finish the show."

Alison Stewart: [laughs]

Bill Posley: That still gets me. Every single time, it still gets me. Those videos are powerful, people. They're very powerful.

Alison Stewart: I've been speaking with comedian and writer Bill Posley. His show is called The Day I Accidentally Went to War. It's at Soho Playhouse through August 30th. Thank you for coming in.

Bill Posley: Oh, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.