Catching Up With Comedians

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...

  Max Dolcelli is a man who has had to claw and fight for anything he ever had in life.  Born in Liguria, Italy the first son of a ship builder, he lost his father when he was but five years old but under him were a 3 year old sister and a baby brother. Life got immediately harder as mom couldn’t raise three young children without a job so Max and his sister went into a catholic orphange and mothe...

Erin started her career in the Bay Area ( San Francisco) after earning her degree from San Jose State in Marketing and Advertising.  She worked for a few years in marketing and walked by a comedy club one day and thought, Wow, what is this? Just a young woman in her early twenties and comedy was barely one to two years away from experiencing a BOOM! Comedy clubs would be opening in every major cit...

  John Caponera grew up in a large family on the south side of Chicago.  The family home sat just across the street from a large park which became a playground for him and his friends. No matter what season, they played baseball in the warm months and when the pond froze over in winter they played hockey and fit in every other sport in between. John went to college wanting only to play baseball bu...

Denny Johnston returns for a second episode. After amassing fifty plus years between his musical and comedy career, I feel it is only right to devote at least two episodes to Denny Johnston. I already wrote a lengthy bio for Denny in the previous podcast #43 so let me just say that we go a little deeper into his beginnings. If you have ever listened to the great theme song for the TV show: THE ROC...

Denny Johnston started his entertainment career performing with the Back Porch Majority in 1967-68 and went on to work with The Christy Minstrels in 1969. Young comedian Steve Martin was opening for these musical acts at the time and Denny watched Steve carefully and was amazed how he came out every night to just entertain the audience using every tool he had in his bag to be funny!  Denny became...

Pete George is one of those guests who comes on and just wins you over immediately. He is a fount of energy and enthusiasm. Every comedian has their own story which is what makes doing this podcast so exciting and entertaining for me, and hopefully for my listeners as well.  Pete came from a musical background as his Dad played the accordion, which has spawned its share of jokes over the years but...

Comedian Jann Karam started out close to home in Arizona when she embarked on her journey in Stand Up Comedy. She soon traveled to Chicago where she studied in The Second City School of Improv, doing comedy sketches. Before long she traveled To New York City where she ultimately met the people and made the connections with the comics, writers, agents and clubs which helped define the path her care...

There are more layers to this podcast that could fill the podcast time alone, much less a short description. Film Director: Brian Burkhardt raised in New Orleans had a rather colorful childhood which led him to performing his first stand up comedy in a federal prison in Texas. Mickey Joseph: born and raised in the Bay Area of San Francisco started comedy back in the hey day of the comedy boom and...