Milwaukee native Ira Madison III is a cultural critic, TV writer and host of the Crooked Media podcast Keep It. Coming up next week, he is adding "author" to his many titles with the release of his debut essay collection, Pure Innocent Fun.
The book explores key cultural moments that inspired his career as a critic and also influenced his life growing up as a Black gay man in Milwaukee. From going to Highland Community School to Morse Middle School, to the culture shock of going to Marquette University High School (an all-boys and primarily all white school at the time) — it was TV shows, movies, and books that were not only a form of escape for Madison, but turned out to be tools for connection.
"The way that I was able to make friends with people was through discussing pop culture, discussing Seinfeld reruns. Discussing Simpsons reruns and spending nights watching movies with friends in their parents' basements," he says.
The essays featured in Pure Innocent Fun take readers on a journey through the ‘90s and 2000s, diving into everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Oprah’s talk show and weekly trips to Mayfair Mall to see as many films as he could.
The theme of shared media experiences looms large in the book, and Madison highlights social media's effects on our collective experience of music, television and film.
"I think a lot of the things that felt niche and small to us at the time, millions of people actually have that same experience," Madison says. "We didn't have a way to know that the things that you were experiencing by yourself at home were lived experiences that many people had — not just in the U.S., but across the globe."
While his assignments for publications such as GQ, Vulture, MTV News and The Cut are typically shorter in length and focused on new releases, the twists and turns of "Pure Innocent Fun" allow Madison to share more long-form analysis and reflections on media with a personal touch.
"My book is sort of like a road trip," Madison says. "You're making a lot of different stops along the way, but you're eventually going to get to the destination."
Madison will be at the Oriental Theater Feb. 3 at 7:00 p.m. to discuss "Pure Innocent Fun" for an event in partnership with the Boswell Book Company.
