What are some words you would use to describe Nathan Fielder? “Awkward,” perhaps. Or maybe “stiff,” as the New York Times did in a review of the new Showtime and A24 series, The Curse, with Emma Stone. Well, you’re wrong. That’s Nathan Fielder doing a character. The real Nathan Fielder is a cool dude who wears little sunglasses, a beret, and all black.
Fielder and Emma Stone dropped by Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday to bewilder a studio audience seemingly unfamiliar with Nathan for You and The Rehearsal. There is nervous, confused laughter throughout — it’s great.
At one point, Fielder pulled out the aforementioned New York Times review and made host Jimmy Kimmel read it. “Yeah, man. It’s like, I don’t think they know really, uh, get what acting is,” Fielder said with mock indignation. “They don’t seem to get, they call it ‘limited range’ and ‘stiff,’ but that’s the character, my brother. They don’t get that I’m playing a stiff, nerdy guy, which as you can see is very different from the real me.”
Stone (who is excellent in Poor Things) had Fielder’s back. “He’s an amazing actor. It was really incredible. The whole time we were working together… I was texting him all the time, I was watching dailies, these things, and I was just kind of blown away by everything.” Fielder then made Stone show Kimmel the text, and demanded that the host call the New York Times and read a pre-written statement (“…and a hardcore lesbian”). You can watch the clip above. Be sure to stick around for the Trump joke near the end.
Yesterday (November 16), Snoop Dogg shocked the world with the following announcement shared on social media: “After much consideration & conversation with my family, I’ve decided to give up smoke. Please respect my privacy at this time.”
Is Snoop, perhaps the biggest cannabis icon of all time, really done with smoking weed? Who knows. His specific phrasing of “give up smoke” may be a little suspicious. Maybe Snoop’s generating viral attention to later introduce a line of edibles on the way? Whatever the case may be, his words have had a clear impact, and that includes on some fellow rappers, who saw what Snoop said and decided to give up weed.
After Snoop shared his announcement, Meek Mill re-posted it on X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, “Ima go to Dubai and completely stop smoking … ima follow snoop, my doctor said I got a lil bit emphysema in a chest if I don’t stop smoking it cuts my lifeline in half, I was addicted to the nicotine and this new weed got too many chemicals and too risky to play with my mental!”
Ima go to Dubai and completely stop smoking … ima follow snoop, my doctor said I got a lil bit emphysema in a chest if I don’t stop smoking it cuts my lifeline in half, I was addicted to the nicotine and this new weed got too many chemicals and too risky to play with my mental! https://t.co/NYAJ9BzJ6e
Steven and Ian took a victory lap at the start of today’s episode upon the news that Air is reuniting for a Moon Safari tour next year, right after they talked up the album in last week’s Best Of 1998 episode. Can they take credit for actualizing this? Probably not. But they did anyway.
From there, they talk about one of the weirdest album release days of 2023. First, you have the new Andre 3000 flute album, New Blue Sun. Second, you have Dolly Parton‘s 141-minute”rock” album, Rockstar. Steven and Ian didn’t get the chance to hear these albums before recording, which is just as well. It might be better to just imagine what they sound like. After that, they discussed the apparent anointment of Boygenius by the entertainment business — they were just on Saturday Night Live and then they garnered more Grammy nominations (seven) than Taylor Swift. Is it safe to call them the biggest act in indie music? In the mailbag, a listener asks about the new album announcement for The Smile and what this means for the future of Radiohead.
In Recommendation Corner, Ian shouts out the new book about ’90s music by Rob Harvilla and Steven recommends the great new live album by MJ Lenderman.
New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 164 here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.
There’s a good chance you’ve seen Graham McTavish on TV. The Scottish actor is everywhere on prestige streaming from House of Dragons to The Witcher to the insanely popular Outlander and the gloriously pulpy Preacher. And that’s before you take into account his film career which spans epic blockbusters like the Hobbit series, Rambo, Creed, and so many more.
But I’m not here to lay laurels at the feet of a great character actor, I’m here to talk whiskey.
They hit it out of the park. The seven-year-old bourbon is a bottled-in-bond batch with truly deep and delicious bourbon notes with a classic edge that goes deep. Long story short, it’s worth checking out and talking about. Which … is much rarer than you might think in the wide world of celebrity-built whiskey brands.
I was lucky enough to catch up with McTavish recently and talk about how he got from scotch to bourbon, building a palate, and building a whiskey. He also dived into the passion it takes to build a brand and the core purpose of doing so for someone like McTavish. It’s a fun chat and offers a glimpse into building bridges between the world of Scotch whisky and American bourbon.
Graham McTavish
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
We all have our own palates that we develop over our entire lives, whether we’re aware of it or not. How did that bring you into whiskey?
Where my palate leads me is that it takes me back to the early stuff, which would be my time with Scotch whisky with my father who introduced me to whisky. It wasn’t unusual for us to toast around the table even when I wasn’t “legally” allowed to do so.
So my palate was informed by obviously being Scottish and growing up with that background. But my father’s palate was very much leaning towards those types of things. So, I’ve always liked Scotch whisky.
That’s a good place to start building a whiskey palate!
It is! And I’m certainly able to distinguish between the different regions of Scotch whisky.
Where did bourbon come in?
It was about 20 years ago when I first moved to America for work that my good friend Nolan North, who is a voiceover actor, invited me over to his house. And I have to confess that I’d never had bourbon before that point.
When I told Nolan that he said to me, “Oh, would you like to have some bourbon at the end of the evening?” And because I’d grown up in that Scotch whisky background, I made the very naive mistake of believing that bourbon was essentially just an American version of scotch, which of course it is not. But there is a kind of built prejudice that they just put an American name on whisky. Which is terrible!
What was that first sip of bourbon like for you?
That was really the moment that where, you know, a little bit of a light bulb went off in my head and in my palate, because I just really loved the taste of it. I liked the sweeter notes and found that I liked bourbon perhaps more than scotch.
What was it exactly that you liked so much?
I liked it sort of … consistency of the taste. I liked the way it rolled down the back of my throat compared to scotch.
It sounds like you were converted on the spot.
I remember thinking, ‘This is really lovely.” But I actually felt terrible. There was a kind of guilt at the same time because … it was almost like heresy as a Scot. And I struggled with that for a long time until I met Paul and Connor in Kentucky. They released me from that guilt because I was able to fully confess and accept that I do prefer bourbon to scotch.
Looking back, what do you still attach to a good pour of bourbon that you look for now?
You know, the kind of things that I detect in bourbon, the kind of things that I hope to find, are the soft vanilla, the spice, that kind of fruit cake and Christmas-y sort of feel. I hadn’t found that with much scotch. But those notes were so present in bourbons and I’ve continued to really enjoy them.
I really love certain things about bourbon and I enjoy them but it’s very difficult for me to sometimes articulate exactly why. That’s why I have benefited so hugely from being educated as well by Paul and by Conor [of theBourbon with Friends Podcast] in this process. They’ve helped me through this process to understand exactly why is it that I like it.
You know, there’s always a hint of nostalgia that comes along with anything that you drink because that’s sort of how our sensory system works, right? Every tasting note we find is simply a sense memory at the end of the day. Where do those sensory memories take you?
A lot of the whiskey I love are the ones that take me back to usually a nostalgic place but, you know, are lovely too. It gets tangled up in my mind as well, not just in a taste sense, but also the history that I’ve become interested in, in how Bourbon came to be. You know, in my ignorance 20 years ago, I had no understanding at all of what bourbon means to American history.
Obviously, you had the Scots, Irish, English … German influence of the colonists coming over to the East Coast of America. They started with the idea that they wanted to bring their distilling abilities with them because that was what they knew. But they also needed it in their lives. It wasn’t necessarily that they wanted to make loads of money out of it. It was just what they did and they used what was on hand. And then you have what George Washington did with the taxes in the late 18th century where it forced those whiskey makers further West into the Ohio Valley.
I love the happy accidents that occur with these sorts of things. You know, but for that attempt at taxing certain people, they wouldn’t have necessarily moved West. And if they hadn’t moved west, they wouldn’t have discovered that particular limestone seam and the iron-free water and all the rest of it that makes bourbon so, so unique and specific. I love that. I love that journey — that historical journey that bourbon has taken as well.
Graham McTavish
How did you find the right bourbon for your bottle?
I knew pretty early on that I would want a high rye style because I like that extra spice personally. So I wanted a bourbon that was a little bit over, you know, the 18% mark. I was also really keen on the “bottled in bond” idea because again, historically, that really appeals to me.
We all know that bottled-in-bond bourbon is perceived as “the good stuff,” which is all great. But I liked the reason that that category came about in the whole system in place to assure quality and age in the late 19th century and really drive a premium product.
So I was sort of throwing a lot of things into the bag together with history and with a preference for those spicy notes with a fruity note, and that’s how we came up with our direction for the bourbon in the bottle.
It’s always great to talk about these big ideas — flavor notes, history, etc. — but then the rubber hits the road. How did that ideas translate into action in finding the right bourbon barrels?
Precisely. There was quite a bit of exhaustive R&D with Paul and Conor, which I think, in fairness, they were a lot more prepared for than I was. I drink, sure. I’m used to drinking scotch and other spirits and I’ve had bourbon but not really in the quantities required to find those subtle nuances. So having Paul and Conor there to guide my palate toward something special was a great further education. Being with them, it’s like being with someone who understands something very, very deeply. And that sort of infects you in a good way.
It’s exciting when you’re chasing a great bourbon and find all these paths that you might not have seen or tasted before. How many barrels did it take to really zero in on the best ones for you?
I was fortunate that I had quite a lot to choose from in those R&D sessions that narrowed it down. After that process, the choices were narrowed down to maybe four or five batch options and then we all really loved this one that ended up in the bottle.
Through every tasting and blind tasting and re-blind tasting, that one batch was consistently the winner and loved by all of us. It always got the vote.
Do you feel like your Scotch whisky background is expressed in the bourbon you chose for this release?
For me, the Scottish connection was less about the flavor and the palate in the bourbon and more about my own sort of emotional connection with America now, and that bridge really between the two for me. That really was the big thing.
What’s being bridged there?
Putting aside for a minute that I preferred the taste of bourbon, I felt as being a Scotsman that with my acting career, for instance, I always felt this guilt at not wanting to just do Shakespeare performances on stage. You know, actors as opposed to want to play Hamlet and, and all the rest of it.
And I really understood relatively early on that even though I was in denial about it that what I really wanted to do was do movies and specifically movies that involved action, swords, and all of those sorts of things.
As I’ve done more and more of that sort of work, there was this hold that the old convention of acting had on me. There was this voice that was saying, “No, no, no, no, no, no! That’s not really acting.”
I had that same feeling with bourbon. My roots in Scotland were pulling at me and constantly saying, “Bourbon? Yeah, it’s all great. But it’s not Scottish!” And when I realized that was the same feeling I had about my acting career and that I had ignored that voice, I knew I was on the right path.
I don’t need my whiskey to be Scottish because I’m an actor working in America. So without sounding too full of puns, this bourbon is literally a distillation of my Scottish life, my acting career in America, my bonds with that country, and my growing understanding of that country.
You have a bourbon under your belt so let’s look forward a bit. Where does McTavish Spirits go next?
I definitely want to emphasize that I’m not in this for the short term. I’m not in this as some sort of one-off. You know it and see it just like I do. I’m not some actor just putting my face in front of something and going, “Please, please buy my whiskey…” I actually love this whiskey and I love bourbon. I want to learn more about it.
And there’s just so much of it. There are so many directions that you can go to create and find an amazing whiskey these days.
I like to think that if bourbon is a mountain range, I’m in the foothills of it — barely — and the looming mountain tops that is bourbon are still in the far distance. There’s a long way to go before I ever learn about it all. And the truth is that I’ll never get to the top of those mountains either because it’s like all great mountains, you think you get to the top and then you realize that there’s more to come. But that’s the joy of it as well because while we have plans for what we want to do, there are things that will develop that we can’t even imagine yet.
I think that is one of the real joys of any spirit-making. The combinations are almost infinite and it’s the process of trying to find the one that you like and you want to share that is the fun part. The actual getting it out there to people. I just want people to enjoy and share this wonderful bourbon we found.
While some might think a Negroni is strictly a summer drink, we can’t think of a time when we wouldn’t welcome the semisweet cocktail with open arms (and mouths). This simple, elegant, classic cocktail is made with equal parts Campari, gin, and sweet red vermouth. A well-known aperitif, the drink is often consumed as a precursor to a heavy meal. The mixture of sweetness from the vermouth, bitterness from the Campari, and the herbal and botanical nature of the gin make it the perfect drink to help stimulate your appetite.
While there are various origin stories, one of the most popular takes us back to Caffe Casani in Florence, Italy in 1919. This is where a man aptly named Count Camillo Negroni was unhappy with the strength of his Americano cocktail and requested that the bartender replace the soda water with gin. Others claim it was invented by a man named General Pascal Olivier de Negroni de Cardi. Regardless of who invented it, the drink is just as refreshing as it was over a hundred years ago.
To prove that fact, we asked a handful of bartenders to tell us their thoughts on the iconic before-dinner cocktail. Specifically, we asked them to name the best gins for crafting a world-class Negroni. Keep scrolling to see all of their choices.
Plymouth Gin
Plymouth Gin
Adam Delaney, USBG and cocktail consultant in Los Angeles
Plymouth Gin. It’s not too weak and not too intrusive. It’s the name for both the brand and style of gin that’s been distilled in the same place, the same way since the late 1700s. To say they know what they’re doing is an understatement.
Tasting Notes:
Lemon and the perfect amount of juniper berries complement the Campari, sweet vermouth, and orange zest garnish so well, that I’ve been known to bottle all of these ingredients together to bring to parties.
Bombay Sapphire London Dry Gin
Bombay Sapphire
Hunter Douglas, bar lead at L’Ardente in Washington, DC
Don’t overthink this one—use a London dry style like Bombay Sapphire London Dry Gin. Upgrade your Negroni by adjusting vermouth and bitter ratios. I like more gin and less vermouth and bitters. Try sprinkling in a rich Pedro Ximenez to add a layer of depth, but always start with a classic London dry base.
Tasting Notes:
Dry, semisweet, with a ton of juniper pine flavor, Bombay Sapphire is a great complement to Campari and sweet red vermouth.
Monkey 47 Schwarzwald Dry Gin
Monkey 47
Tsuru Goto, food and beverage manager at Society Cafe in New York City
Monkey 47 is my personal favorite for both a Negroni and a classic gin & tonic. While it uses 47 ingredients it does so in a very balanced way, resulting in a complexity that supports a cocktail like a negroni that doesn’t utilize a lot of ingredients to make a tasty twist on the beverage.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a lot of citrus and pine on the nose as well as fruity, herbal, pine, and gentle spices on the palate. All are great for the Negroni.
Campari is a key component of a Negroni, providing the bitter and herbal element essential to the cocktail. Pair it with a London dry gin like Tanqueray and its botanicals complement the bitterness of Campari, creating a balanced and classic Negroni.
Tasting Notes:
Flavors like Angelica, licorice, juniper berries, cinnamon, and gentle spices add a kick to the recipe and help temper the other ingredients.
BCN Gin
BCN Gin
Grigore Priocchi, bar manager at R.AIRE Restaurant in the Hampton Bays, New York
BCN Gin, made in Barcelona, is, in my opinion, perfect for gin and tonics. I always recommend BCN gin when preparing negronis for our guests. The floral and citrus notes are a perfect match to the vermouth and Campari.
Tasting Notes:
BCN has floral notes from plants that are native to the Mediterranean, balanced by juniper, citrus, figs, and fennel.
Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin. With its interesting blend of botanicals, including gunpowder tea, Irish meadowsweet, cardamom, and kaffir lime, it complements the herbal ingredients in red vermouth and tempers the bitterness of Campari.
Tasting Notes:
Juniper, citrus peels, herbs, and a green tea flavor make for a unique addition to your favorite before-dinner cocktail.
Barr Hill Gin
Barr Hill
Tonya Martel, head bartender at Gin Lane Bar in Montpelier, Vermont
For a versatile and approachable gin, we recommend using Barr Hill Gin. Barr Hill Gin is distilled solely from juniper and finished with raw honey, which gives the spirit a botanical depth that allows it to mingle perfectly within a traditional Negroni.
Tasting Notes:
Sweet honey, piney, fresh flowers, and gentle spices make this gin a great base for a Negroni. It pairs perfectly with the other ingredients.
In my experience, a London dry gin like Broker’s is the best gin to mix into a negroni, as it has been a tried-and-true combination that has stood the test of time. I find that using a London dry gin like Broker’s in my Saturn x Negroni at Three Dots and a Dash adds just the perfect amount of a juniper-forward taste.
Tasting Notes:
Broker’s provides a classic gin foundation, and the dryness of the spirit helps balance out the sweetness of the other ingredients in the cocktail.
Fords Gin
Fords
Beth Serowsky, bar manager at Meadowlark in Chicago
I always gravitate toward a base spirit that gives the cocktail a strong backbone but doesn’t overpower everything else in the glass. Fords Gin is a great example of this. It was created with bartenders with classic cocktails in mind, so using it in a Negroni is a no-brainer. If you’re doing a creative spin on a Negroni-style cocktail, Fords is also a wonderful canvas to showcase a bartender’s creativity.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a ton of juniper on the nose and palate, but it has a nice spicy backbone and notable flavors like citrus peels and a nice kick of floral flavors. All of which work well in a Negroni.
The Botanist Islay Dry Gin
The Botanist
Nick Jackson, head bartender at The Rum House in New York City
When it comes to a Negroni, I prefer one of two styles. Big bold juniper heavy gins, or something more delicate and nuanced. For the latter, I prefer The Botanist Islay Dry Gin. For the vermouth, my preference is Lustau Vermut Rojo, which pairs well with The Botanist, with the vermouth’s balance of PX and Amontillado sherries adding the right amount of sweetness and slight nuttiness to complement the gin. I also like to ‘light pour’ the Campari just shy of one ounce to make this Negroni much less of a palate destroyer and something a bit more pleasant to drink.
Tasting Notes:
The Botanists incorporates twenty-two Islay botanicals with floral, herbal, and citrus notes which help to elevate the Negroni to more of a sophisticated cocktail.
We are truly in Drake season right now. He dropped For All The Dogs in October, he recently announced he and J. Cole are heading out onIt’s All A Blur Tour — Big As The What? together, and last night, Drake released For All The Dogs Scary Hours Edition. Now, the story continues: Drake and Cole have added some new dates to their tour.
All told, ten new shows were added, all of which are additional nights in cities they were already planning to visit, including San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and Cleveland.
Check out the upcoming tour dates below.
01/18/2024 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena +
01/19/2024 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
01/22/2024 — San Antonio, TX @ Frost Bank Center
01/23/2024 — San Antonio, TX @ Frost Bank Center #
01/25/2024 — Oklahoma City, OK @ Paycom Center
01/26/2024 — Oklahoma City, OK @ Paycom Center #
01/29/2024 — New Orleans, LA @ Smoothie King Center +
01/30/2024 — New Orleans, LA @ Smoothie King Center
02/02/2024 — Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena
02/04/2024 — Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena #
02/07/2024 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena +
02/08/2024 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena +
02/12/2024 — St. Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center
02/13/2024 — St. Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center #
02/16/2024 — Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
02/17/2024 — Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena #
02/20/2024 — Columbus, OH @ Schottenstein Center +
02/21/2024 — Columbus, OH @ Schottenstein Center
02/24/2024 — Cleveland, OH @ Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
02/25/2024 — Cleveland, OH @ Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse #
02/27/2024 — Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center
02/28/2024 — Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center #
03/02/2024 — Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center
03/03/2024 — Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center #
03/05/2024 — Memphis, TN @ FedExForum
03/10/2024 — Lexington, KY @ Rupp Arena
03/14/2024 — Belmont Park, NY @ UBS Arena ~
03/15/2024 — Belmont Park, NY @ UBS Arena #~
03/18/2024 — State College, PA @ Bryce Jordan Center ~
03/23/2024 — Sunrise, FL @ Amerant Bank Arena ~
03/24/2024 — Sunrise, FL @ Amerant Bank Arena #~
03/27/2024 — Birmingham, AL @ Legacy Arena at the BJCC ~
Here in 2023, Taylor Swift has been truly inescapable, whether it was via her two new Taylor’s Version albums (Speak Now and 1989), her smash-hit The Eras Tour and accompanying theatrical concert film, or her getting to know Travis Kelce a whole lot better. Now, she’s popping up on albums she’s not even on.
Drake, who himself has also had a massive year, just dropped For All The Dogs Scary Hours Edition today and he gives Swift a shout-out on Red Button. During the song’s opening verse, he raps, “Taylor Swift the only n**** that I ever rated / Only one could make me drop the album just a little later / Rest of y’all, I treat you like you never made it.”
The lyric is all praise for Swift, with Drake showing his respect for her impact and success by suggesting he’d push back an album release if she had a project coming out the same week, in order to avoid competition with her and give himself a better chance at chart success.
Meanwhile, just a few lines later, he also shares some less glowing thoughts about Kanye West: “Every time you need me for a boost, I never hesitated / Every time that Yeezy called a truce, he had my head inflated / Thinkin’ we gon’ finally peace it up and get to levitatin’ / Realize that everything premeditated.”
For All The Dogs Scary Hours Edition is out now via OVO/Republic.
Here in 2023, Taylor Swift has been truly inescapable, whether it was via her two new Taylor’s Version albums (Speak Now and 1989), her smash-hit The Eras Tour and accompanying theatrical concert film, or her getting to know Travis Kelce a whole lot better. Now, she’s popping up on albums she’s not even on.
Drake, who himself has also had a massive year, just dropped For All The Dogs Scary Hours Edition today and he gives Swift a shout-out on Red Button. During the song’s opening verse, he raps, “Taylor Swift the only n**** that I ever rated / Only one could make me drop the album just a little later / Rest of y’all, I treat you like you never made it.”
The lyric is all praise for Swift, with Drake showing his respect for her impact and success by suggesting he’d push back an album release if she had a project coming out the same week, in order to avoid competition with her and give himself a better chance at chart success.
Meanwhile, just a few lines later, he also shares some less glowing thoughts about Kanye West: “Every time you need me for a boost, I never hesitated / Every time that Yeezy called a truce, he had my head inflated / Thinkin’ we gon’ finally peace it up and get to levitatin’ / Realize that everything premeditated.”
For All The Dogs Scary Hours Edition is out now via OVO/Republic.
The new collection features “Evil Ways,” a pumped-up, energetic new collaboration between Cole and Drizzy. On the song, the two heavy hitters go bar-for-bar, reflecting on their respective journeys to the top of the rap game.
Drake opens the song, running through his impressive resume, reminding everyone that he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
“I got some evil ways / Even through the glasses, you can see the gaze / To find your way up to the top, this shit gon’ be a maze / Vogue’s swaggin’, sh*t the way, I’m runnin’ Beatles’ place,” raps Drake.
Cole then reflects on his career, reiterating the fact that he didn’t have to play any Hollywood games to earn GOAT status.
“I conquered hell, I walked the villain, set my feet ablaze / My heart harder every year likе sneakers that Adidas made / I nеver did the VMAs, I’m not in need of praise,” raps Cole.
Last month, Drake dropped the Cole collaboration “First Person Shooter” from the standard edition of For All The Dogs. The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it Cole’s first-ever No. 1 on the chart.
You can listen to “Evil Ways” above.
For All The Dogs: The Scary Hours Edition is out now via OVO and Republic.
A few hours after this news broke, journalist Marisa Kabas published a post on her Substack page about the doctor who performed the Botox injections on Santos. Turns out, Santos’ Botox guy is almost as shady as he is. Almost.
After digging into the House Ethics Committee’s report on Santos’ shady campaign contribution spending (what a wild week in Congress!), Kabas learned that an outfit named Mirza Aesthetics was paid to perform the injections, and Mirza Aesthetics is owned and operated by Dr. Muhammad Mirza. Kabas then did some digging.
Mirza’s bio shows no reference to dermatology or aesthetic certification of any kind, but he’s absolutely been performing these procedures. Back in 2019, he sued four Yelp reviewers who claimed to have received his Botox services and gave him a one star review. Reviewers accused him of “pre-loading Botox into the syringes so he can dilute it, of injecting people in shady locations, of pushing more product on patients and of generally being a scam artist.”
Similar to his cardiovascular business, patients said his Botox business was primarily mobile. He “works out of gym bags in some back end storage room that was sketchy and dirty. Felt like we were filming a porno,” one reviewer wrote.
State authorities say he traveled to dozens of rented locations throughout New Jersey and neighboring states performing “invasive aesthetic procedures with inadequate formal training and little regard for the health and safety of his patients,” Acting state Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck announced Tuesday.
…
The doctor would see up to 30 patients a day in “makeshift spaces with substandard protocols for medical recordkeeping, patient follow-up, and storage of medical supplies, including products that require refrigeration and strict temperature control,” Bruck added…In one case, he used an injectable dermal filler in a nonsurgical penile enhancement procedure that caused permanent harm to a patient who suffered complications that required his hospitalization, where he underwent two emergency surgical interventions, the Attorney General’s Office alleges.
As icing on the cake, Habas reports that earlier this year “Mirza pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud in New Jersey for engaging ‘in a scheme to bill the Amtrak health care plan for fraudulent claims for services that either were never provided or were medically unnecessary.’”
It’s kind of poetic that George Santos managed to find the George Santos of doctors to perform his Botox injections, if they were even Botox injections and not, you know, something else one would not want to have performed by a dude in a van who apparently carries around his products in gym bags.
Coincidentally, Vice did a video profile of Dr. Mirza back in 2019 for its “One Star Reviews” series and it does not disappoint. You can watch it below.
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