Retro | metro: peter iselin
retro | metro checks in with Metroland staffer of yore
*This interview originally appeared in our November 2024 issue.*
Peter Iselin founded Metroland in 1978. I was truly flattered and honored to be given his blessing to resurrect it a few months back. He seemed like the fitting first guest for our series called “Metro/Retro”, where we meet with and talk to as many former Metroland staffers as possible as a way to honor the original, hear some cool stories from back in the day, and see where they are and what they’re up to now! This interview even mentions Metroland’s most FAMOUS alum, Jimmy Fallon. What follows are highlights from our recent conversation on my Mistress of None podcast. To hear the full interview, listen to “The Mistress of None” wherever you stream podcasts!
Erin Harkes: Peter, how are you?
Peter Iselin: I'm great, Erin. Thank you for having me today.
EH: So you are the founder of….
PI: I am the founder of Metroland. First issue was June, 1978.
EH: How did you get your start in media?
PI: My start in media came semi-accidentally. I studied music, and that's still my training. But in 1978, I decided that this area needed some sort of arts and entertainment magazine. This was the disco era. The original Metroland was a monthly.
And it was very… to call it journalism would be a major stretch. We went around and took pictures of people in bars and restaurants and people dancing and freaking out and all this stuff. There was no integrity. It was total fluff, but people went crazy over it.
Photo by: Michael Gallitelli
I wanted to try and be some sort of big shot here, you know. Troy is my hometown. I thought, wow, if I put together a magazine like this, the girls are gonna want to be in it.
EH: So you did it for chicks?
PI: I did it for chicks. I mean, it's why a lot of us go into music too. But, yeah, the 24 year old me, that's why I did it. I had no training in journalism. I had no training in marketing. I learned everything as I went along. And unfortunately, or fortunately, the whole disco era thing kind of petered out. It was ironic because I was a live musician, and here I was promoting something that was killing live musicians. So by 1980, we took it to a weekly newspaper format, and then we expanded into covering arts and theater and live concerts; it became a real arts guide.
The big change came in 1987. I went to a conference in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. This was a meeting of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, including people like the Village Voice and the LA Weekly. I wanted Metroland to be accepted into the organization, but they looked at it and [laughed]. ‘There's no journalism. You're a little fluffy arts guide.’ I came back from that conference determined to make this into a real newspaper with real journalism. We kicked it off in September of that year. I had a gentleman doing a column for me prior to that, whose name was Stephen Leon, and I knew that he actually had a Master's in journalism. I appointed him as Managing Editor, and we immediately launched into all kinds of political coverage, very left wing, as most alternative papers were. That's how it really became what I would call a legitimate journalistic enterprise. In ‘95, it had been 17 years, and I was really tired of the weekly deadlines and the grind and just running a business period, so I sold it. Stephen Leon and a group of investors took over, and he then ran it for another 20 years. It was really even better as a newspaper after I left.
EH: You've had some pretty interesting brushes with fame too.
PI: Yeah. I am fortunate enough to count among my closest friends, Jimmy Fallon. And Jimmy goes back to the Metroland days. A year before my departure, as if we didn't have enough problems, these kids working for me wanted to do a sketch comedy show. A guy by the name of Donald Metzner, who owned a big car dealership, sponsored the affair and bought time on the Fox station, and we put together a half hour show. It was pretty bad. You gotta understand, everybody was amateur. We cast people from the community, and one of them was like this, not even 19-year-old kid who was going to St. Rose, Jimmy Fallon. He's a good looking kid, and he wrote a couple of sketches. They were funny. He obviously had some talent. And unbeknownst to me, he was also doing a lot of stand up.
He ended up asking me for a job at Metroland, which I gave him. And he worked as a receptionist and brought me my mail. The following year, he's still working there, and I had sold the business. I was saying goodbye to everybody and getting ready to move to California, and he comes up to me kind of shyly with a VHS tape and says, “hey, this is the tape of my stand up act. Maybe you could play it for people.” I took it and forgot about it. In November, I'm at my desk at my new job kind of organizing things, and there's the VHS tape from Jimmy Fallon. I felt, man, I promised the kid I would do this. I've got to play it for these people. I've been here long enough that they'll trust me. So, on a Friday afternoon, I called other people in this management company into the conference room, and we put the tape in. I'm telling you, within 90 seconds, these people were jumping up and down, screaming at me. “Who is this kid? We need to sign him immediately. Get him out here.” They had this incredible reaction, and so did I because I had never seen him do the stand up.
EH: You had never even watched the tape yourself?
PI: I never watched.
EH: That's hilarious.
PI: So I called him and said, “hey, dude, I finally played your tape. Sorry it took so long. But guess what? Everybody loves it. And they want to sign you, and they want you to move out here. They want to send you out on pilot season for television, which is in January.” In January of ‘96, I picked him up at the airport. He had a guitar and a trunk. That's it. We ended up renting a townhouse and we lived together as roommates for two and a half years.
EH: Wow.
PI: Those two and a half years were some of the funniest. When I look back on it now, it was just a blast. And when I'm with him, even to this day, I'm hilarious. The minute he leaves the room, I have no comedy chops at all.
EH: Well, then I really need to be in the same room with you two.
PI: Yeah, it's infectious. And he'll laugh at you. He'll give you the reaction. I mean, he's really the farthest thing from, like, stuck up or narcissistic or conceited or any of that. He's a rare, famous, talented entertainer who's not like that. He's got a big heart. He's just a really great guy.
EH: I'm really glad that I finally got to hear that whole story. We never really delved into it. I knew that you had a history with him, and I knew that his history involved Metroland. Which, you know I will do it justice.
PI: Oh, I have no doubt. I'm not worried about that.
EH: I’ve gotten some very kind words from a lot of people that are excited to see it come back, and I'm excited to bring it back.
Photo by: Joe Montarello
PI: I think there's a real need.
EH: I think so, too. There's definitely a vacuum. And the best thing is that, the more people that I talk to, the more I hear people say, “a lot of people have talked about doing this for years, but you're the only one that I believe is actually gonna do it.”
PI: You're the only one that has the energy that it takes. I can't tell you how many people will come up to me and say, “we really miss Metroland. There's nowhere now we feel we can turn and really get a comprehensive listing.” People are trying in print and otherwise. And everybody does pretty good work, but nobody is really giving you the whole story because it takes resources. You almost have to have a full time person that's just gathering information. You would think, well, everybody wants free publicity. They're just gonna email me stuff anyway. But no, they don't. You have to actually pursue them for the sake of your readers. And that's what people don't get.
EH: And when you work with anybody who is in the arts or anybody who's creative, it's like wrangling monkeys. I mean, there's a lot of ego, a lot of personality, and everybody has a different language, so to speak. So I'm discovering that, too. But I have a lot of really great people working with me and making sure that we can put out the most comprehensive calendar and hopefully show our worth.
PI: Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that you're singularly well positioned in this market, given everything that you do already… to take this on, I don't think there's anybody better for it.
EH: So I think we have to end there because I might cry a little bit. That means a lot to me.
PI: I mean it.