Catching Up With Comedians

Bill is one of three comedians I have given a second episode to as they had all achieved fifty plus years in the comedy business.  In part two with Bill we discuss his 14 Tonight Shows as well as his introduction into the Norman Lear family by way of Alan Thicke. Martin Mull and Fred Willard hosted two groundbreaking television shows America Tonight and Fernwood Tonight! Bill as the bad toupee wea...

    (Part One: of my podcast with Bill) My guest, Bill Kirchenbauer came of age during The Comedy Boom of the 1980's.   Bill had been on the road ever since he was born in Romania, in 1953 as the son of a career military man and his wife. Once in the U.S. the army kept Bill and his family on the move, where they lived in almost all fifty states and he attended 20 different schools in 13 years; one...

This is part two of my two part episode with Comedian John Kensil. I re- ran the final 90 seconds of part one to create a smoother transition to parts one and two. We were chatting about comedians when we were young and John mentioned how many of them came on to The Mike Douglas Show ( which was taped for many years in Philadelphia) and many actors came on Mike Douglas as they were acting in dinne...

John Kensil was an absolute pleasure to chat with on my podcast. He brings over thirty years of comedy chops to our mics at C.U.W.C. and he is unbridled about the comedy business and its evolution. Unlike many comedians, however, he has a very fun and affable way of accepting what was/ is/ and always will be an ever changing and evolving business in terms of comedy tastes, comedy styles, approache...

On my second visit with Comedy Director Linda Mendoza, we cover her extensive directing of the Gershwin awards for Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Burt Bacharach, Paul Simon, Paul McCartney and her equally expansive direction of the Mark Twain Awards for American Humor, including: David Letterman, Bill, Murray, George Carlin and Tina Fey. We also discussed her directing of so many icons of comedy in b...

Chip Chinery‘s life and career should be a college course, a documentary or at least a footnote at the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York. Chip started Comedy as an amateur at just 15 years of age. He performed stand up through high school and into college where he was active in Theater, film and video classes and he produced and starred in his own documentary at Miami University in Cin...

Bob Greenberg, conceived in the Catskills and born at New York Hospital in Manhattan was destined for the stage. Bob has done everything in this business from comedy clubs to television sitcoms, dramas, mini-series and films. A longtime member of the Friars and Lambs, Bob has Won Best Actor Awards for Jimmy Breslin: How To Read The Newspaper and The Stella in two New York Theater Festivals. A tale...

Jimmy Shubert born and raised in Philadelphia was one of seven boys with a police detective Dad and a school teaching Mom. Jimmy attended a magnet  high school for the creative and performing arts and he was a professional working magician by age 15. He especially liked taking the acting classes Jimmy started performing stand-up comedy right out of high school in the local Philadelphia area. He mo...

Linda Mendoza is an award-winning Director, born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. She was a Sociology Major before falling into the television industry.  Linda got her start in the multi- camera/variety genre as a production assistant. She worked her way up on hit shows such as 'In Living Color' and ''Saturday Night Live." Linda’s love of stand-up started at an early age.  Later her opportunities...

Tom Ryan has been a full-time standup comedian for over thirty years.  He made two appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman and recently performed at  Carnegie Hall. Since  he was about 10 years old, Tom wanted to be a standup comedian. The  first standup comedy he ever heard was from David Brenner and George Carlin.  At  26, he left an insurance job in his hometown of Philadelphia to mov...

This is Gene Hamm‘s third visit to my show. He brings a lifetime of art and animation to  his third feature film Entitled:  "Don’t Call Us, We’ll Kill You!"     It will be on the Roku channel. In addition to his work for Disney, Hanna Barbera, and many others, he has also taught animation for over 25 years at the Art Institute in Marin County. He is also promoting his new online  course where he w...

Andy Huggins: Andy Huggins always loved Comedy and has a vivid memory of the sound  the audience made laughing hysterically in a huge movie theater, when he first watched the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup. After graduating from high school in Virginia, he started doing Open Mic nights and telling jokes between the musical acts. He moved to Los Angeles after Johnny Carson kept mentioning that all the...

My guest Joe Dalo was born in Philly and raised in South Jersey. He started out like  most comics working open mics and progressed to the real comedy clubs like The Comedy works  and The Comedy Factory Outlet. He also wanted to be an actor and he was in the road company of Toni and Tina‘s wedding. Joe had a building and construction background which gave him another side hustle; He started getting...

Rhonda Shear grew up as the youngest of four kids in New Orleans. Her Mom Supported her dancing and  modeling while Dad instilled in her the Mind of the Business Model. She left Louisiana with a College Degree from Loyola University, and the Title of Miss Louisiana USA/World/International   She headed west to Los Angeles where she studied acting and started paying her dues. She graduated from the...

My guest today Ted Lange was born and raised in Oakland California. While most people would recognize Ted from his 10 seasons starring as Isaac the Bartender on  THE LOVE BOAT;  before that show he  had already appeared in 4 to 5 films, was a regular in a sitcom that ran for 39 episodes and he had already appeared in the  Broadway  production of the musical HAIR! TED Lange is a  GRADUATE from LOND...

My guest today is Comedian Vince Harper. Vince was dancing a lot as a teenager and inspired by his older brother, he started pursuing it full time. From a young man, he had joined a dance group that performed on the stages at Disneyland and eventually they were good enough  to perform on TV shows, American Bandstand, Dance Fever, The Midnight Special as well as the Merv Griffin Show. His group kno...

  My guest on the podcast this week is Mr. Jay London. Raised in the Bronx, Jay’s two passions in life have both served him well:  stand-up comedy and boxing. In both enterprises you are fighting for your life and in both you can kill or bomb out and die. Jay fought his way through the Bronx neighborhoods and school yards and later through the local comedy clubs and  “Live at the Apollo!” He fough...

George Hamaty started as a stand up comedian at Penn State and continued for twelve years developing an act while also studying acting. After college, he decided to head west to Los Angeles, which is where I first ran into George. He was only in LA for the years 1985 through 1991,  but he rose up the ladder from opening act to feature act and met many people and definitely made his mark. George is...

Linda Marcus Smith joins me this week for her second appearance on the podcast.  Linda gained much notoriety during the pandemic when she interviewed not less than 1000 comedians for her podcast "The Comics Spot." Since the end of the pandemic, Linda has worked tirelessly rising up the ranks in the Las Vegas Comedy Clubs and Casinos.   Just over a year ago she decided to make the move back to her...

  Welcome Dan Rosenberg to the podcast . In 1992, Dan moved to Los Angeles to start a stand-up career at age 22.    He sold cars in the daytime and did stand up at night. When the Northridge earthquake hit in 1994,  he took that as a sign to leave LA while he could still catch a plane that had an accessible runway.   He moved back to Pennsylvania to coach basketball and  after that he ended up tea...

My guest today is David Uhlfelder who was raised in Colorado and started his comedy career when he was barely 20 years of age and pursuing an engineering degree at Cal State University, San Luis Obispo. He earned his degree and has been working as a comedian for eight years now and without the assistance of a day job. To understand how you could visit: https://www.daviduhlfelder.com/    as well as...

My guest today is Comedian, writer, actress: Brenda Pontiff. A Texas, Gal, born and raised in Bay City. She was in the second generation of comics who started at Houston's Comix Annex  which began the famed careers of Sam Kinison, Bill Hicks and the Texas Outlaws. One of these Outlaws has had a rebirth of late:  Andy Huggins, of AGT fame. Brenda worked with Andy many years ago and now is opening f...

I am proud to Welcome Comedian Bob Zany on my # 50 Podcast today.   Born, Robert Tetrault in West Covina, California; the family later moved to the Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys section of the San Fernando Valley. With two older brothers and one younger sister, Bob was Ensconced well into middle child status, but the family unit was close and parents very supportive of their brood.   Bob Zany started out...

Today, joining me for his second visit is Gene Hamm;  a writer- producer and Animation Film Maker.   Gene has been working in animation for over 40 years… …….starting out with Hanna-Barbera where he was a model maker and then onto  Prema Vision as the in house free lancer with the iconic "Art CLOKEY" who created Gumby, Pokey and so many other Beloved childhood characters using stop action editing....

Welcome to the show today, Wyatt Cote. Wyatt had figured out very young that he was a water child. He loved the ocean and by six years old, he was starting to surf the inside breaks in Long Beach and Huntington Beach. He loved the beach vibe and has been a surfer ever since. Though he attended the University of Hawaii as his father wanted him to pursue a professional career, Wyatt decided early on...