Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Normally, when you tune into Bullseye , you'll hear interviews with different pop culture creators. This week, we're breaking the format a bit. That's because it's our annual end of year best stand-up comedy showcase! We're playing you some excerpts from the best stand-up comedy albums of 2022. Our list includes industry veterans and up-and-coming talents you are going to love. See pcm.adswizz.com...

The Song That Changed My Life is a segment that gives us the chance to talk with some of our favorite creators in show business about the music that made them who they are today. This time around, we're joined by Rainn Wilson. That's right: Dwight from The Office and more! Rainn explains how Mystery Dance by Elvis Costello literally changed his life when he moved from Seattle to Chicago in his tee...

Charlotte Nicdao stars as Poppy on the Apple TV+ comedy Mythic Quest . It's a workplace comedy about a video game company, but it's not really about video games. Everyone on the show cares deeply about the thing they're working on. It's the massive online role-playing fantasy video game Mythic Quest . Charlotte Nicdao joins Bullseye to talk about the new season of Mythic Quest and playing the part...

Actor Aya Cash joins us on Bullseye for the latest installment of The Song That Changed My Life . It's a segment where creators we know and love talk about the music who made them who they are. Aya has played in a number of memorable roles, and these days, she stars in the very funny sitcom Welcome to Flatch . When we asked her about the song that changed her life, she took us back to her childhoo...

Vanessa Ramos is a television writer. She's written for shows like Superstore , Bordertown , Crashing and Brooklyn Nine-Nine . Her latest show is called Blockbuster on Netflix. It's a sitcom set at the very last franchise location of Blockbuster, and the employees who try to keep the store alive. We talk with Vanessa about creating the new sitcom, and her own memories of Blockbuster, and what VHS...

Occasionally, we like to ask some of our favorite creators about a work of art they wish they'd created. This time, our guest is Guy Branum. When we asked Guy about the thing he wishes he had made, he picked a movie: 2017's Lady Bird , a classic coming-of-age story set in the early 2000s and directed by Greta Gerwig. Guy is a comedian who's appeared on Last Comic Standing , hosted the TV show Talk...

Sudan Archives has been making music for all her life. She grew up in Ohio, where she played violin in church and school bands. When she got her high school diploma, she headed out to Los Angeles to follow her dream of making music. Sudan Archives is a violinist who breaks new ground with what the instrument can do in pop music. She combines the instrument with her voice, her beatmaking and her so...

Journalist and author Shea Serrano has covered basketball and pop culture for ESPN, XXL, Grantland, the Ringer and more. His first book, The Rap Yearbook, is a New York Times bestseller and a critical favorite. When we first talked with Serrano in 2017, he'd just followed it up with Basketball and Other Things, a book that is kind of like a written version of a late night party discussion with fri...

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of the greatest basketball players of all time: an NBA Hall of Famer, six-time MVP, 19-time All-Star, the master of the skyhook shot and a key part of the Showtime era Lakers. Since retiring from basketball, Abdul-Jabbar has written books, columns and even worked as a writer for Veronica Mars . When we talked with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar last year, he'd just narrated a docum...

Bashir Salahuddin is a comedy actor and writer. Alongside his friend and longtime collaborator Diallo Riddle, he co-created the shows South Side and Sherman's Showcase . South Side is a very funny sitcom that follows the stories of everyday people living on Chicago's South Side. The other show they created is Sherman's Showcase . The show's sort of like a sketch show, but with a unique format that...

Bruce McCulloch is one of the founding members of the legendary Canadian sketch comedy team The Kids in the Hall. He starred in the eponymous TV show that aired for five seasons in both Canada and the U.S., and the follow-up movie Brain Candy. Earlier this year, Bruce rejoined his original KITH crew for their return to TV on Amazon Prime. Bruce also spends his time working behind the camera. He's...

The Song That Changed My Life is a segment that gives us the chance to talk with some of our favorite artists about the music that made them who they are today. Billy Idol throws us back to 1954, to one of the first songs Elvis Presley ever recorded: That's All Right . He first heard the song at an Elvis convention with his sister in the '70s. At the time he was playing in punk rock bands and a lo...

"Weird Al" Yankovic is the undisputed king of parody music. He's been recording music for over 40 years and sold millions of records. He's got an iconic voice, the chops for pop and a sense of humor that's both distinct and approachable. After all this time, Weird Al is getting the biopic treatment. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story was co-written by Al himself and debuts on the Roku channel on Friday,...

We're celebrating the season with our annual Bullseye Halloween Spectacular. We kick things off with an in-depth, funny conversation with R.L. Stine, creator of the Goosebumps series. Stine talks about how he got into writing, how he comes up with titles and why he wishes he never dreamed up an evil ventriloquist dummy. We'll hear about the craziest day in the wild, storied career of drag queen Mo...

The Song That Changed My Life is a segment that gives a chance for musicians and artists to tell us about the song that made them who they are. This week, we talked to Lil' Mike and Funny Bone, a rap duo from Oklahoma City. Mike and Bone are brothers who got their big break in 2013 when they made an appearance on America's Got Talent . And they are truly unique - they're both members of the Pawnee...

For over twenty years, Steve-O has performed on Jackass in all its iterations. He's done stunts on the original TV show, the movies and the spinoffs. He's risked life and limb, suffered countless serious injuries and in doing so made millions of people laugh and gasp. Recently, he's reunited with the Jackass crew for their latest film: Jackass Forever . He also has a new memoir out called: A Hard...

Tom Scott is a rapper from New Zealand's underground hip-hop scene. He's been rapping for over a decade now. He grew up in Auckland – the biggest city in a very small country. In 2018, Tom released an amazing, beautiful album under the name Avantdale Bowling Club. On the record, he reflects on his roots. His childhood. The friendships he's lost. The places he's been. His family. It's an intimate h...

Before John David Washington was an actor, he was lacing up the pads every week for a career in professional football. It seems fitting, then, that when he took up acting, his breakthrough role was the portrayal of an NFL player on HBO's Ballers . Washington has since gone onto play a bunch of other big parts since Ballers. He has since had a lead part in Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman and a role in t...

Hua Hsu is a staff writer for The New Yorker. He's written profiles and reviews of artists like Bjork, bell hooks, and Sandra Oh. He's also a professor of English at Bard College, with a passion for elevating underappreciated talent in literature. His new book, Stay True, is an intimate and probing memoir. In Stay True, Hsu looks back on his early twenties, when he was an undergrad at University o...

Bonnie Raitt is a legend. Now in her 70's she's still touring, still shredding and still writing songs. She's been recording music for over 50 years and she's won ten Grammys. Bonnie's also been in the rock and roll hall of fame for over two decades. Earlier this year she released Just Like That . Her eighteenth full length studio album. Our correspondent Ray Suarez talked with Bonnie about the ne...

Michael R. Jackson is the creator of A Strange Loop. The groundbreaking show won the honor for Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical at the most recent Tony Awards. Recently our correspondent Julie Klausner caught the show on Broadway, and she fell in love right away. Klausner and Jackson talked about writing the musical, showing it to his family, and so much more. See pcm.adswizz.com for inform...

Billy Eichner was already a working comedian when he rose to fame as the host of Billy on the Street - a bonkers game show where he runs up and down the streets of Manhattan shouting questions at strangers. Now, he's written and starred in his first movie. Bros is a romantic comedy, produced by Judd Apatow, about a same-sex relationship. Bros features an entirely LGBTQ+ cast - the first of its kin...

Chris Estrada is a stand-up comedian and co-creator of the new TV comedy, This Fool . Estrada also stars as the show's main character: Julio. Julio lives in South Central Los Angeles, where Chris grew up, but the show isn't autobiographical. Julio works at a local nonprofit that helps former gang members adjust to life on the outside. The show follows the misadventures of Julio and his cousin Luis...

Bobby Moynihan first appeared on SNL in 2008, and starred on the show for nearly a decade. He did a few impressions, but his strength was portraying offbeat characters. When Bobby left SNL in 2017, he began to appear in a variety of projects; shows like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and movies like The Secret Life of Pets . In his free time in-between projects, Bobby began writing. He created Loafy ,...

Loudon Wainwright III is a singer and songwriter. He began his folk career in the late 60s, and released his self-titled debut in 1970. He's occasionally referred to as a novelty singer, but his broad musical catalog has proven that to be untrue. Loudon has recorded 26 studio albums, six compilations, and four live albums. His album High Wide and Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project brought him his...