Don't Be Alone with Jay Kogen

Brent Forrester has written for The Simpsons, The Office, King of the Hill, and The Ben Stiller Show. So naturally, he says he wasn't born funny. Brent joins Jay to explain how he actually taught himself comedy by obsessively studying jokes, breaking them apart, and figuring out why they worked — a process that eventually landed him in some of the greatest comedy writers' rooms in television histo...

Paul Provenza has spent basically his entire life thinking about comedy. Which sounds exhausting. Paul joins Jay to talk about what actually makes someone funny, why George Carlin scripted his performances like a play, how Sarah Silverman seemed to figure out her comedic voice immediately, and why Anthony Jeselnik understands something most comedians don't: sometimes shutting up is part of the jok...

Comedian Chloe Radcliffe gave up Target corporate for comedy club and has zero patience for people who can't say the word "birthmark" out loud. AND SOMEHOW managed to sell a movie before she really knew how to write one. Jay sits down with stand-up comedian, screenwriter, and actress Chloe Radcliffe for a funny, candid conversation about what it takes to make it in comedy, why being an outsider mi...

Political arguments are everywhere. Productive political conversations? Not so much. Jay sits down with writer, poet, and political analyst Robert Arnold, author of Defiance Until Death, to talk about why America has become obsessed with winning arguments instead of actually solving problems—and why humiliating the other side probably isn’t changing anyone’s mind. Robert talks about growing up in...

David Kissinger grew up swimming in Nixon's pool, getting bad-mouthed by classmates over his dad's Nobel Prize, and hanging out with people history books call monsters — and he calls uncles. Jay sits down with David Kissinger — son of Henry Kissinger, TV exec behind The Office, Battlestar Galactica, and Netflix's The Beast in Me — for a conversation that swings from Watergate to Ted Danson's phone...

Jonathan Shapiro spent years as a successful attorney, working for the Justice Department and prosecuting organized crime. Then he met Jay Kogen — and somehow ended up writing television. Jonathan joins Jay for a funny and surprisingly personal conversation about leaving the law behind and building a 26-year career writing some of television’s biggest legal dramas, including The Practice, Goliath,...

What happens when two veteran comedy writers start questioning everything they were taught about writing? Jay sits down with Bill Martin and Mike Schiff, the longtime writing partners behind shows including 3rd Rock from the Sun, In Living Color, Grounded for Life, and The Neighborhood, for a funny and candid conversation about what makes comedy work — and why some of the oldest writing advice mig...

Michael J. Weithorn knows a thing or two about making television work — and about what happens when it doesn’t. The creator of The King of Queens joins Jay Kogen to talk about the years of trial, error, difficult actors, canceled shows, and hard-earned lessons that eventually led to one of television’s most successful sitcoms. Michael shares how Jerry Stiller initially turned down The King of Quee...

Can comedy run in the family? M*A*S*H and Laugh-In writer/producer Allan Katz and Groundlings pioneer Phyllis Katz join Jay Kogen to compare the wildly different paths that took two siblings from the same Chicago household into legendary careers in comedy. Allan's story sounds almost made up. While working in advertising, his work on Screaming Yellow Zonkers caught the attention of Laugh-In produc...

When does pushing for what you want become pushing too far? Jay sits down with comedian, writer, performer, and Valley Heat creator Christian Duguay for a conversation about boundaries, bad decisions, creative confidence, and knowing when to make the call and when to leave something alone. At the center of Valley Heat is Doug Duguay, a fictional character who keeps finding himself in increasingly...

From Arrested Development to insubordinate rebels: John Levenstein tells all. Long before podcasting was cool, John Levenstein (Arrested Development, Kroll Show) was already doing it — mostly because he had no idea what he was signing up for. In this episode, the veteran writer/showrunner gets refreshingly honest about what actually makes a comedy writers' room work. His controversial take? Not ev...

Is America really doomed or is there still a path forward? In this episode of Don't Be Alone, Jay Kogen sits down with Leigh McGowan, better known as Politics Girl, for an honest conversation about the future of America. Together, they explore whether the country has reached a breaking point, why so many people have lost faith in politics, and what it would actually take to rebuild trust in our in...

Barbara Heller talks about walking away from the perfect man just before her wedding and breaking down with a mid-life panic attack on stage and committing to being a Jew to find happiness and trying to live as a perfectionist and being an all or nothing person.  She discusses her one woman show and her ability to get people to explore their life stories through drama to understand who they r...

Show Notes: On this episode legendary writer and show creator talks about being the first white guy on stage at the Apollo, getting a show about alcoholics cancelled because the network president was an alcoholic, the pleasure of writing a first draft, and driving way too fast, and how music drives his writings and the time he was oddly alone with Bruce Springsteen and told him a dirty joke. Bio:...

Brilliant comic, Leah Rudick, talks about growing up in Ohio, being a drama kid, writing and doing sketch comedy, and eventually moving out to LA and becoming a stand-up. Working with her brother. She talks about how being shy gave her the courage to be in front of people while wearing the mask of performing. She talks about making TikTok Instagram her character playground. Leah talks about how cr...

 What happens when two people with complicated pasts — failed marriages, sobriety journeys, and a chance meeting at a 4th of July party — fall in love but decide not to move in together? Claudia and Jonathan join us for a conversation as layered and surprising as the indie film they made together, D(e)AD — a project born from personal heartbreak, an ex-husband who may or may not have faked cancer,...

In memory of the great James Borrows we rebroadcasting this episode of "Dont Be Alone with Jay Kogen". We talk with James Burrows about his reign as Hollywood's greatest sitcom director, being the son of Abe Burrows, the genetics of comedy, his book "Directed by James Burrows", "Cheers", "Will & Grace", "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "Taxi", "Friends", the scripts that make him want to direct, the o...

Harper Steele talks about transitioning and the differences in how she experiences the world as a woman and how the world experiences her.  The differences in parenting, writing, and comedy. Trying to fight off who she really was for years. Her fears of being judged.  How finding her true self saved her life. How road trips are different. How being macho was an odd priority before. How that reflec...

Screenwriting Legends SCOTT ALEXANDER and LARRY KARASZEWSKI discuss their origin stories of being film nerds, drive-in movies, how looking on the back of Variety was glorious when they were kids, how Shakey's Pizza's silent movies influenced them, meeting the first hour at school and deciding to go to the Nuart Theater in Los Angeles, why they program screenings including The Wrong Guy, what makes...

Bennett Yellin and Peter Farrelly talk about meeting each other in school and immediately connecting over their shared sense of humor. Bennett talks about substance abuse in college, while Peter discusses being a very hard driver at work. You talk about getting very lucky working with Eddie Murphy and David Zucker, and about bringing Bobby Farrelly into the group when they were writing movies toge...

Cheri talks about growing up in a rough house with a lot of kids and a young mom and pretending to escape and maybe grab some attention. She talks about imitating TV shows, soap operas and Joe Cocker. She talks about moving from Pennsylvania to California to pursue dreams of acting after a break-up and found herself in the heart of Panorama City nowhere near Hollywood.  Later she found early succe...

Writer, Michael Elias, talks about growing up in the Catskills, where you had to make your money in the summer to survive the winter, and how that created a lot of tension. He also talks about taking acting classes, dealing with being an actor, and how acting helped him build scenes and characters. He talks about working for Glen Campbell without realizing how talented he was. He discusses his boo...

Actress/Author Annabelle Gurwitch talks about living with stage 4 cancer, dating a hard rock tour manager, making each day count, the search for cures, ketamine fails, finding joy in writing, medicine overload, and the joys of hand painted wallpaper. Bio:  ANNABELLE GURWITCH is a New York Times bestselling author of six books, and two-time Thurber Prize finalist. Her writing appears in The New Yor...

Actor/writer talks about being in The Vacant Lot, the sketch show immediately after Kids In the Hall and how the CBC tanked it, what it takes to be a bad waiter, why Canadians are funny in the US, how Canada makes people take turns being successful, how show business culls the herd, and the great conversation he had with his dad on the day he died.  Bio:  Paul Greenberg is an Emmy-winning writer,...

Wendy Liebman - talks about her joke prompts as a help for writing, people who want to be picked on in the audience, being an actress as and turning to stand-up, slowing down your performance, the audience as a community, jokes that lead you somewhere, the joy of the Jindo dogs, AI stealing jokes, Steven Wright, the plusses of being a comedy team, Phyllis Diller, comics who get their own sitcom, j...