Beginnings

On today's show I talk to stand-up and actor Eugene Mirman . Originally from the USSR, Eugene and his family emigrated when he was four, settling in Massachusetts. From an early age, Eugene was interested in comedy, and he even studied it in college. He began performing stand-up in 1992 and since then has become a veritable brand. He's had recurring roles on shows like Flight of the Conchords and...

On today's show, I talk to Sergio Pérez and Luciana Della Villa of the Spanish band SVPER . Originally from Northern Spain and Argentina respectively, Sergio and Luciana formed SVPER when they met over a decade ago while living in Barcelona. A keyboard duo, SVPER combines Krautrock with pop and are reminiscent of bands like Broadcast. Their first album Brillar is an international hit (and rightly...

On today's show I talk to comedian Michelle Buteau . Born in New Jersey to Caribbean parents, Michelle's first big break in comedy came when she was invited to participate in the HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo. Since then she's performed stand-up on many shows including Craig Ferguson , Totally Biased and Last Comic Standing . In addition to joke-speaking, Michelle is a voice actor o...

On today's show, I talk to Cassie Ramone of The Vivian Girls and The Babies . Raised in Ridgewood, NJ, Cassie grew up in the music scene that gave birth to bands like Real Estate and Titus Andronicus. Cassie and Katy Goodman formed The Vivian Girls in 2007, and after putting out three fantastic albums recently called it quits. However, Cassie continues to make music on her own and also in the band...

On today's show, I talk to Irish comedian Maeve Higgins . Born in Cobh, County Cork, Maeve grew up in rural Ireland and originally studied to be a photographer. Since starting stand-up in 2004, she's performed at the Edinburgh Fringe numerous times, the Melbourne International Festival, and many others. She also wrote and performed on two shows for Irish television: Naked Camera and Maeve Higgins'...

On today's show I talk to comedian Andy Daly . Born in New York, Andy started comedy in the late 90s first with Chicago City Limits and then with UCB, where he was part of the first wave of the theatre and performed on the legendary team The Swarm. In 2000, Andy moved to LA to join the cast of MADtv , and since then has performed on a number of awesome shows including Eastbound and Down , The Life...

On today's episode, I talk to Becca Kaufman, Julian Fader and Ethan Bassford of the Brooklyn-based band Ava Luna . While a lot of the music press has compared Ava Luna to the Dirty Projectors due to some superficial similarities, Ava Luna is very much their own band. Combining R&B, no wave, funk and more, they've released a number of EPs as well as two albums: Ice Level in 2012 and their latest El...

On today's show, I talk to SNL Weekend Update writer Josh Patten . Originally living in Washington DC to work on political campaigns, Josh took an improv class in 2006 and fell in love with performing. After moving to New York, he began taking classes at UCB and eventually became one of the featured performers at the theatre. In addition to improv, Josh is one of the best joke writers around, and...

On today's show, I talk to writer and casting director Katja Blichfeld . Originally from California, Katja moved to New York to pursue a career in casting and worked on all seven seasons of 30 Rock , garnering an Emmy for her work. She's also cast a number of other shows, including The Carrie Diaries and the Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica . Outside of casting, Katja is also the co-creator of...

On today's show I talk to actor and electrician Mike Maronna . Born in Brooklyn, Mike began acting from a young age. From 1993 to 1996, Mike starred as Big Pete on the seminal Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete & Pete and also starred as one of Macauley Culkin's siblings in the Home Alone movies. While he's acted in a number of projects since then, he fell in love with lighting while on the s...

On today's show, I talk to comedian Jermaine Fowler . Originally from Maryland, Jermaine moved to New York when he was 20 to pursue stand-up and acting as a career, and he has quickly found success. He tours nationally and was one of the "new faces" at Montreal's Just for Laughs Festival, and he's also a castmember on MTV2's Guy Code and Guy Court . Check out the website for Beginnings , subscribe...

On today's show I talk to MC, writer and actor Jean Grae . Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Jean moved to America as a child and grew up in New York City. In the mid-'90s, she started rapping with groups like Ground Zero and Natural Resources, and in 2002 she released her first solo album Attack of the Attacking Things , and since then has released numerous albums and EPs, a comedy webseries, a bo...

On today's show I talk to cartoonist Ruben Bolling . A lawyer by trade, Ruben is also the author of the amazing syndicated comic Tom the Dancing Bug , which has been running since 1990. While mostly a political cartoon like This Modern World , Tom the Dancing Bug has no standard format, sometimes critiquing the current plutocracy, sometimes just being surreal and absurd. The comic has been collect...

On today's show, I talk to comedian and musician Dave Hill . Dave got his start playing in indie rock bands in the 1990s, such as Sons of Elvis and Cobra Verde. While he still plays music today, his main focus is on writing, performing and hosting, dividing his time between Dave Hill's Podcasting Incident on Maximum Fun, The Dave Hill Explosion at UCB, The Goddamn Dave Hill Show on WFMU, contribut...

On today's show I talk to contemporary artist Marcel Dzama . Marcel is a New York-based sculpter, painter, and filmmaker, originally from Winnipeg. He's exhibited his art internationally at places like MOMA in New York and the Kunst-Werke in Berlin, and collections of his are housed all over the world from Pittsburgh to Paris. Marcel's also created album covers for bands like They Might Be Giants...

On the last episode I taped in Los Angeles, I talk to LA-based musician and comedian Brendon Small . Brendon is the co-creator, writer, voice actor, and composer for the amazing Adult Swim show "Home Movies", which ran for four seasons from 1999 to 2004. As well as doing voice work on a number of other cartoons including "Venture Bros." and "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", he also co-created the hit show...

On the fourth anniversary of Beginnings, I talk to LA-based artist Jon Vermilyea . Jon graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2006 with a BFA in cartooning, and his violently psychedelic comics and art have been published in numerous places including Ganzfield, Vice, MOME, Complex and Marvel Strange Tales. Jon also animated the "My Girls" video for Animal Collective, and worked as a backgroun...

On today's show, I talk to comedian and author DC Pierson . DC is a member of Derrick, a sketch group that formed out of NYU's official sketch team Hammerkatz, that includes Donald Glover and Dominic Dierkes. Derrick was an early YouTube sensation, and in 2009, they released their first feature-length film "Mystery Team". DC is also the author of two young adult novels, The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep...

On today's show I talk to LA-based comedian Danny Lobell . Danny is an internationally touring stand-up and storyteller, and for eight years he hosted the first comedy podcast called "Comical Radio". Starting in 2004, Danny interviewed some of the top comic minds of our time including George Carlin, Paul Giamatti and Chris Rock. When the show ended in 2012, he started a new show called "Modern Day...

On today's show, I talk to "Conan" writer Brian Stack . Taking his first improv lesson in 1987, Brian spent the next decade honing his craft, and performed at Second City for four of those years. In 1997, he joined the writing staff of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", and since then has stayed with the show through its three iterations, where he's played numerous characters such as Clive Clemmons,...

On today's show, I talk to writer and performer Gil Ozeri . Starting out his comedy career in New York, Gil performed on one of UCB Theater's most beloved improv teams Death by Roo Roo. Gil also has an impressive writing resume, having written for Adult Swim's NTSF:SD:SUV , as well as all three seasons of Happy Endings . Currently, Gil is a writer for Brooklyn Nine-Nine . Check out the website for...

On today's show I talk to writer and director Jason Woliner . Originally from the Bronx, Jason has written and directed some of the best comedy of the last decade. He was a non-performing member of the MTV sketch show "Human Giant", and has also directed episodes of "Parks and Recreation", "Jon Benjamin has Van", "New Girl", "Nathan for You" and "Delocated". Currently, he co-writes, directs and pr...

On today's show, I talk to writer and director Scott Gairdner . Scott is an Los Angeles-based comedian and has been making videos since high school. Some of his best work includes Tiny Fuppets , Clip Cup , and the Sex Offender Shuffle . Professionally, Scott worked for Funny or Die for two and a half years and currently is on the writing staff of "Conan". Check out the website for Beginnings , sub...

On today's show I talk to musician and cartoonist Nick Thorburn . Born in British Columbia, Nick first came to prominence with the indie rock band The Unicorns in the early 2000s, when their album Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? was written up in The Village Voice, NME, Pitchfork and many other publications. When The Unicorns broke up in 2004, Nick then formed the similarly amazing band Isl...

On today's show, brought to you by Sal's Landscaping, I talk to comedian Todd Glass . Originally from Philadelphia, Todd began performing stand-up while still in high school. Since then, he's become one of the best stand-ups of our time. Todd's credits include everything from "Conan" to "Politically Incorrect" to the second and third seasons of "Last Comic Standing", and he also hosts the podcast...