Beginnings

On today's episode I talk to actor and comedian Amy Hoggart . Amy grew up in the suburbs of London, and though she received an advanced degree in clinical psychology, she ended up pursuing a career in comedy. She started in the famous Cambridge sketch group The Footlights and the London stand-up scene, and in 2014 was cast in the BBC America show Almost Royal . And in 2016, Amy became a correspond...

Every so often I do these "bonus episodes" where I talk to a showbiz professional about the actual nuts and bolts of different topics in the Entertainment Industry in an attempt to demystify these things. And on today's episode, I talk to the love of my life Naomi Ekperigin (former writer for Broad City, you may have heard her on 2 Dope Queens or on her own Comedy Central Half Hour), and we talk t...

On today's episode I talk to musician Tim Kasher . Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Tim has been playing music since he was young. One of Tim's first bands, Slowdown Virginia was shortlived though they inspired other bands to form like The Faint and Bright Eyes, and Lumberjack Records, the record label that put out their one album, became Saddle Creek, one of the biggest indie labels around. In 19...

On today's episode I talk to Jason Balla and Mikey Wells of the indie rock band NE-HI . Based in Chicago, NE-HI originally formed in 2013 to score a friend's film. But when the four of them realized they had a lot of chemistry together, they decided to make the band official. Their first self-titled album was released on Manic Static in 2014 and their latest album Offers was released earlier this...

On today's episode I talk to musician Jason Narducy . Jason began his rock career at the age of ten when he co-founded the band Verböten – one of the seminal acts in the Chicago punk scene. He then went on to become frontman/songwriter/guitarist for Verbow, another beloved Windy City outfit who signed a major-label deal with Epic/Sony during the '90s alt-rock bubble and followed that up with an on...

On today's episode I talk to violinist David Harrington . Originally from Seattle, David is the founder of the renowned contemporary classical group Kronos Quartet. The group was established in 1973, and since then, Kronos has become one of the most celebrated and influential groups of our time, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 50 recordings of extraordinary breadth...

On today's episode I talk to writer and actor Mara Wilson . Mara started off in showbiz as a child actor in such films as Mrs. Doubtfire , Miracle on 34th Street and Matilda . After her mother passed away when she was 8 though, she lost some of her passion for acting, and eventually left that side of the business. While she infrequently acts now, appearing on shows like Broad City or BoJack Horsem...

Every so often I do these "bonus episodes" where I talk to a showbiz professional about the actual nuts and bolts of different topics in the Entertainment Industry in an attempt to demystify these things. And on today's episode, I have a wide-ranging and frank talk about comedy journalism with Vulture.com Senior Editor and host of the new Good One Podcast Jesse David Fox . The conversation starts...

On today's episode I talk to musician Tim Kinsella . Originally from Chicago, Tim has been part of some of the best indie rock bands of the last quarter-century. In 1989, he formed Cap'n Jazz along with his brother Mike, who would go on to become a frequent collaborator with Tim and a well-know artist in his own right in bands like American Football and Owen. Even though Cap'n Jazz only put out on...

On today's episode I talk to violist Nadia Sirota . Based in New York, Nadia is a Juilliard-trained violist best known for her singular sound and expressive execution and she's worked with a number of amazing contemporary composers like Nico Muhly, Judd Greenstein, and Missy Mazzoli. Her debut album First Things First was released in 2009 on New Amsterdam Records and was cited as a record of the y...

On today's episode I talk to rapper and academic Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo AKA Sammus . Originally from upstate New York, Enongo currently lives in Ithaca where she is attending Cornell to pursue her PhD in Science and Technology Studies. Parallel to her academic work, Enongo is a rising star in the indie hip hop scene. She released her first EP Fly Nerd in 2010, and since then has released numerous...

On today's episode I talk to writer Chris Claremont . Born in London, Chris' family moved to the States when he was a child, and though he originally studied acting and political theory, he eventually started writing comics after taking a job as a gofer/editorial assistant at Marvel while in college. Chris was originally given the low-selling series X-Men to write, which he did for the next 16 yea...

On today's episode I talk to stand-up and writer Joel Kim Booster . Originally from South Korea, Joel was adopted at a young age and moved to the southwest suburbs of Chicago. He's written for Billy on the Street  and Moshe Kasher's new Comedy Central show, and was one of the New Faces at the Just for Laughs Festival last year. He's also performed on C omedy Knockout , The Meltdown , and Conan , a...

On today's episode I talk to musician Matt Pond . Originally from New Hampshire, Matt began writing and releasing music in 1998 as Matt Pond PA. Debuting with the album Deer Apartments , the band quickly gained momentum after claiming top honors in an unsigned bands competition sponsored by CDNOW. Since then, Matt - along with a rotating cast of musical collaborators - has released almost two doze...

On today's episode I talk to writer and performer Amber Ruffin . Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Amber began her comedy career studying at iO in Chicago. From there she moved to Amsterdam, where she performed with Boom Chicago all over Europe, eventually ending up at the Second City Mainstage back in the States. In 2014, she became a writer on Late Night with Seth Meyers  - the first black, femal...

On today's episode I talk to comedian Josie Long . Josie's originally from Sidcup, but grew up in Orpington, London. She began stand-up when she was 14, and since then has created or been part of an innumerable amount of cool projects. This includes numerous performances at the Edinburgh Fringe - where she was nominated for "Best Show" scads of times and won "Best Newcomer" in 2006 - as well as th...

On today's episode I talk to comedian  Roy Wood Jr . A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Roy began his comedy career in 1998 at the age of 19 while attending Florida A&M University. In 2006, he was named one of the New Faces at the Just for Laughs Festival and made his television debut that year on The Late Show with David Letterman . Roy's also performed on Conan , Def Comedy Jam , Craig Ferguson ,...

On today's episode I talk to actor and comedian Baron Vaughn . As a stand-up, Baron's performed on Conan (twice), Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson , Late Night with Jimmy Fallon , and he has his own Comedy Central Half Hour . As well, AST Records released his album Blaxistential Crisis earlier this year. As an actor, he's been featured in movies like Black Dynamite and Cloverfield , and is curre...

On today's episode I talk to musician Mitski Miyawaki . Originally from Japan, Mitski grew up all over the world, eventually settling in New York. While studying at the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music, Mitski self-released her first and second albums, Lush and Retired from Sad, New Career in Business . Her third album Bury Me at Makeout Creek was released by Double Double Whammy in 2014, and i...

On today's episode I talk to writer and actor Azie Dungey . Azie grew up in Philly and the DC area. After graduating as a drama major from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, she performed the role of a slave as part of an ongoing historical reenactment of life at George Washington's Mount Vernon plantation in Virginia. This was the basis for her acclaimed webseries Ask a Slave . In 2015, Azie wa...

Hey y'all! Happy Thanksgiving! With everything going on in the news lately (ahem, neo-nazis, ahem), I thought I'd take the chance to re-post a conversation I had with Andrew Ti of the Yo, Is This Racist? podcast. This was part of an episode I had to take down from a couple years ago, and it seems like an apt time to repost the Andrew Ti part of that episode because we talk a lot about irony and pr...

On today's episode I talk to free jazz pianist Matthew Shipp . Originally from Delaware, Matt moved to New York in 1984 and quickly became one of the leading lights in the New York jazz scene. He was a sideman in the David S. Ware quartet and also for Roscoe Mitchell's Note Factory before making the decision to concentrate on his own music. Since then, dozens of his albums have been released, most...

Well. If you're anything like me and my almost-wife Naomi Ekperigin (Broad City, 2 Dope Queens, Comedy Central Half Hour), you spent Tuesday the 8th into the 9th depressed, nauseous, crying, in a fitful and restless sleep, and generally trying to come to terms with the phrase "President Trump" and with the nightmare that was just unleashed. I was not in the mood to return to business as usual, so...

On today's episode I talk to writer and director Chioke Nassor . Chioke's previous work includes writing and directing short films for NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers , the feature film How to Follow Strangers , the TV on the Radio documentary Minor/Major , and his web series Storytime . Most recently, Chioke wrote and directed episodes of the MTV show Loosely Exactly Nicole starring Nicole Byer...

On today's episode I talk to Peabody-award winning writer and animator Tom Snyder . Tom is a writer and director well known in the world of animation for creating the animation technique known as Squigglevision. His first Squigglevision success came with the Emmy winning show, Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist , which aired on Comedy Central. Tom later founded Soup 2 Nuts, an award-winning animatio...