Beginnings

On today's show, I talk to writer and director Gillian Robespierre . A New York native, Gillian grew up in Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan. Her father made films for many years, and that, as well as a number of other reasons, drew Gillian to become a filmmaker herself. In 2009, she made a short called Obvious Child , which she then expanded into a feature-length film starring Jenny Slate. This debute...

On today's show, I talk to improvisor Charlie Todd . Originally from Columbia, South Carolina, Charlie moved to New York after college and since 2001 has been performing at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. At UCB, Charlie created the comedy wrestling league UCBW and was also a part of the long-running house team Reuben Williams, which later morphed into The Curfew. They perform every Saturday...

On today's show I talk to artist Nate Hill . Originally from Florida, Nate moved to New York to perform art in a city that would be receptive to his works. And Nate's works are pretty amazing. Coming out of the same public performance tradition that gave birth to artists like Joey Skaggs and even some of the early Upright Citizens Brigade pranks, Nate's art is practiced outside the usual (suffocat...

Very glad to have this week's guest on the show, comics writer Ales Kot . Originally from Ostrava in the Czech Republic, Ales was born during The Cold War, and grew up after the Iron Curtain fell. After moving to the US, he pitched some comics ideas to Image at a convention, pitches which eventually became the series Wild Children and Change . From there, he's worked on DC's Suicide Squad , is wri...

On today's show I talk to writer  Chris Kelly . Chris is one of the most driven guys I know. He started off writing on house sketch teams at UCB and working at The Onion, and from there he's worked as the head writer on Matt Besser's Comedy Central special  This Show Will Get you High , he was a staff writer at Funny or Die, and he also wrote for  The Onion News Network  show. Currently, Chris is...

On today's show, I talk to musician Will Cullen Hart . Will grew up all over the US, but it was living in Louisiana that truly made him who he is, because that's where he met Bill Doss, Jeff Mangum and Robert Schneider and formed the Elephant Six Recording Company, as well as The Olivia Tremor Control with Doss. It's not hyperbole to say that the bands that were part of Elephant Six: Neutral Milk...

On today's episode I talk to guitarist and composer Arto Lindsay . Born in America, Arto grew up in Brazil while the Tropicalia movement was in full swing, and moved back to the states to attend college. Eventually moving to New York, Arto formed the important no wave band DNA in the 1970s, and since then has been part of so many amazing bands and made so much great music that it's tough to discus...

On today's show, I talk to the amazing Conner O'Malley . Conner is a comedian from Chicago who got his start training and performing at places like IO, Annoyance and Second City. After moving to New York a few years ago, he began performing at UCB, first on Harold Night and then as a member of the house team The Law Firm. In 2013, Conner was one of the Just for Laughs New Faces for his characters,...

Today I'm super-glad to welcome stand-up and comedy writer Frank Conniff back to the show. Originally from New York, Frank ended up in the midwest  in the19 80s doing stand-up. During this time, he met the future creators of Mystery Science Theater 3000 , and was later brought aboard the show during the second season, both as a writer and appearing onscreen as TV's Frank. Since then, Frank's worke...

On today's show I talk to Katherine, Teeny and Lizzie Lieberson of the fantastic band TEEN . The Lieberson sister come from a long line of musicians and dancers, but originally, only Teeny had pursued music as a career, playing keyboards in the popular band Here We Go Magic. While she had some time off from the band, Teeny began to write and record songs on her own, and eventually recruited her si...

Couldn't have had a nicer time on this week's episode with Brian Huskey . Known as a comedic actor, Brian actually started as a musician, playing in the band Bicycle Face in the North Carolina scene that gave birth to bands like Superchunk and Archers of Loaf. After moving to New York, he started taking classes at UCB, where he formed the group Naked Babies with Rob Corddry, Seth Morris and John R...

Oh yeah! This week's episode was taped live on June 29th at the 16th annual Del Close Marathon , and what a blast it was. After sprinting a bunch of avenue blocks (because the trains were messed up) to get to UCB East on time, I was frazzled and dripping sweat, but my physical grossness did not stop Megan Neuringer and Phil Jackson from being awesome guests. By way of bios, Megan is a stand-up and...

On today's show I talk to musician Peter Matthew Bauer . Partly raised on ashrams in India and the Catskills, Peter mostly grew up in Washington DC. It was there he met his future bandmates in The Walkmen, and he even had a high school band with lead singer Hamilton Leithauser. From 1996 to 1999, Peter and Hamilton played in The Recoys together, and in 2000, The Walkmen formed from the ashes of Th...

On today's show, I talk to comedian Jason Nash . Jason is an actor and stand-up based in Los Angeles, and has appeared on everything from Last Comic Standing to House to Reno 911! . He co-hosted the long-running podcast Guys With Feelings , and has created webseries for GQ and Comedy Central. In fact, his latest project is a feature-length film through Comedy Central called Jason Nash Is Married ,...

On today's show I talk to Emmy-nominated TV writer Anthony King . Originally from North Carolina, Anthony started out his professional career in New York at UCB, and within a few years of being at the theater, became the artistic director, a post he held for many years. While at UCB, he co-wrote Gutenberg! The Musical! , which ran there for a year and then off-Broadway. In 2011, Anthony moved to L...

On today's show, I talk to husband and wife writers Harry Mathews and Marie Chaix. Harry Mathews is a writer and poet originally from New York. After a tour in the Navy in 1949, he eloped with a French artist and eventually moved to Europe. There he co-founded the influential literary journal Locus Solus and became the first American member of theFrench writing group OULIPO. Harry is the author of...

On today's show I talk to musician Leanne Macomber of Neon Indian and Ejecta . Growing up in football-loving Texas to parents who skewed more towards the athletic side of things, Leanne wanted to pursue art and music since she was a teenager. But she had to justify its practicality to her parents by being in things like the school jazz band. Since leaving the Lone Star State, she's been able to pl...

On today's show, I talk to musician Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn . Originally from the outskirts of Philly, Mirah moved to Olympia, Washington to attend college, and while there, became part of the local music scene, where she worked with bands like The Microphones and Old Time Relijun. In the late 1990s, she started making music on her own, and her first album You Think It's Like This but Really It's Li...

On today's show, I talk to Jeff Rosenstock and Chris Farren of the band Antarctigo Vespucci. Both Jeff and Chris have been part of popular punk and indie rock bands for years - Jeff playing in ASOB (Arrogant Sons of Bitches), Bomb the Music Industry! and even Mustard Plug for a bit, and Chris playing with the Naples, FL group Fake Problems - and between the two of them, they've put out north of tw...

I hope you all are ready for a beautiful journey. Back in April, I hosted a live version of the show from my Harlem digs that we streamed out live on the internet. With the help of Cogo, a Kickstarter-like company for charities, I used it as a benefit for this great all-volunteer, no-kill cat shelter Kitty Kind . Joining me were Josh Gondelman from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver , YouTube star...

On today's show, I talk to writer Jen Statsky . Born in Boston, Jen moved to New York to attend NYU, and from there climbed the comedy writing ladder, first starting as an intern at The Onion and eventually working her way up to writing on Jimmy Fallon , Stephen Merchant's show Hello Ladies , Parks and Rec and most recently Broad City . Check out the website for Beginnings , subscribe on iTunes ,...

  On today's show, I talk to writer Heidi Julavits . Originally from Portland, Maine, Heidi is a professor at Columbia and the author of four fantastic books: The Mineral Palace , The Effect of Living Backwards , The Uses of Enchantment , and most recently The Vanishers, which was published in 2012 . As well, her short stories have been published in periodicals like McSweeney's , Esquire and Harpe...

On today's show I talk to stand-up Hari Kondabolu . Born and raised in Queens, Hari became a professional stand-up almost by chance while working as an immigrant rights organizer. He’s performed on Jimmy Kimmel , Letterman, Conan, John Oliver and has his own Comedy Central Presents . Hari also wrote for and appeared as a correspondent on FX's Totally Biased with Kamau Bell and his debut stand-up a...

On today's show I talk to cartoonist  Paul Hornschemeier . Based in Boston, Paul grew up in Ohio, studying psychology and philosophy at Ohio State University. After being introduced to the works of Daniel Clowes, Paul realized that comics could be a venue to discuss existential topics. A number of his books have been published by Fantagraphics including  Let Us Be Perfectly Clear  and  The Three P...

On today's show, I talk to John Colpitts AKA Kid Millions of the bands Oneida and Man Forever . John started drumming in high school and moved to New York in the late-90s to get into music more seriously. After working in music adjacent jobs like being the booker for The Knitting Factory and playing in a jazz trio, John and some friends eventually formed Oneida. In the last 16 years, Oneida's rele...