The Comic's Comic Presents Last Things First

What was podcasting like before the iPhone? Jesse Thorn knows. After college radio, Thorn, host of public radio's Bullseye with Jesse Thorn , broadcast his podcast The Sound of Young America from his home, eventually building his own podcast network, Maximum Fun, which includes Stop Podcasting Yourself ; Judge John Hodgman ; My Brother, My Brother and Me ; and dozens more. Thorn sat down with me t...

Rob Barnett has been a radio DJ and program director, pivoted to TV as programming director for MTV and VH1 in the 1990s, pivoted back to radio to launch CBS Radio's "Free" FM in the wake of Howard Stern's departure, hiring Adam Carolla to replace Stern on the West Coast stations, then left to do his own damn thing online by founding My Damn Channel, where he funded original projects by Harry Shea...

Tig Notaro has both survived and thrived in the decade since she first disclosed her breast cancer diagnosis to a live audience in Los Angeles in August of 2012. Notaro has released three stand-up specials, two on HBO and one on Netflix, in addition to a road-trip special for Showtime, while she also was the subject of a documentary for Netflix. She poured some of her life story into her own serie...

Julia Scotti is a comedian who has enjoyed a career resurgence in her 60s, performing on America's Got Talent in 2016, and in 2020 as part of the Showtime comedy showcase, More Funny Women of A Certain Age , alongside the likes of Caroline Rhea and Carol Leifer. She currently stars in a new documentary from filmmaker Susan Sandler called Julia Scotti: Funny That Way . The film examines Scotti's tr...

Iris Bahr is a comedian, actress, playwright and author, born in New York City and grown up in Israel. You have seen her in a variety of supporting roles onscreen in the 21st century — most recently in 2021 as a spa nurse in HBO Max's Hacks , and as a rehab roommate on ABC's The Conners . Bahr's other TV credits have included guest spots on Friends, The Drew Carey Show, Star Trek: Voyager, 9-1-1,...

Raised in Wisconsin, Pete Lee began his comedy career in Minnesota before moving to New York City after he made his TV debut on Comedy Central's Premium Blend . It would take a few years after that to get his first Comedy Central half-hour special, and another five years to get his chance to perform on the Late Show with David Letterman . Other early credits included VH1's Best Week Ever and truTV...

Rory Scovel is a stand-up comedian, actor and writer who came out of the Washington, D.C., comedy scene, and has managed to incorporate the lessons of improvisation into his stand-up throughout his career, from comedy competitions to late-night TV sets to his latest effort, the comedy documentary, Live Without Fear , filmed by Scott Moran out now on YouTube. Scovel also currently co-stars in the A...

Rose Matafeo is a comedian, writer and actor from New Zealand who began her comedy career at age 15. In 2018, her stand-up show Horndog won the top comedy prize at the Edinburgh Fringe, and she subsequently recorded Horndog in posterity for HBO Max in 2020. She has become a fixture on TV panel shows in the UK, and you may have seen her as a contestant on the popular program Taskmaster , or perform...

Josh Johnson is a stand-up comedian and writer from Louisiana who began his comedy career in Chicago. Since moving to New York City, he has performed on late-night TV via Conan ,  The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Kevin Hart Presents: Hart of the City , Netflix's The Comedy Lineup , and a half-hour special on Comedy Central. He has written for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon , and cur...

Paul W. Downs and Lucia Aniello began collaborating as comedy and life partners after meeting in 2007 at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and Magnet Theater in New York City. Their early efforts included a webseries for Broadway Video's Above Average Productions and a one-man show, The Paul Downs Experience, at the UCB in 2010. Since then, you've seen their work together or individually in the...

Flula Borg is a German actor, musician, comedian and DJ who began making his mark on American audiences in 2015 — that's when he broke through out of YouTube to become one of Variety's 10 Comics to Watch, as he starred in an NBC pilot and co-starred in the smash hit movie, Pitch Perfect 2 . Since then, Flula has popped up in a variety of supporting roles on shows such as Curb Your Enthusiasm and T...

Fresh out of Houston to Flatbush, Brooklyn, Kevin Iso's friendship with fellow young comedian Dan Perlman led to making YouTube video slice of life sketches with their funny friends. They went from "Moderately Funny" to Showtime. In between, Iso's stand-up landed him a showcase spot on Adam Devine's House Party on Comedy Central, as well as This Week at the Comedy Cellar , a recurring role on Hulu...

Originally from Boston, Sam Jay is an Emmy-nominated writer and critically-acclaimed stand-up comedian. After being named one of Variety's 10 Comics to Watch in 2018, Jay made her Netflix debut on The Comedy Lineup and released her first album, "Donna's Daughter," with Comedy Central Records. Jay's 2020 Netflix special, 3 in the Morning , was one of that year's best. As a writer, her credits inclu...

John van der Put is a magician and comedian from the UK much better known by his stage name as Piff the Magic Dragon. Piff has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, toured with Mumford and Sons, fooled Penn & Teller on television and charmed the United States on America's Got Talent . Piff has held court for the last few years as a headlining act on the Vegas Strip at the Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel and...

Dana Gould is a stand-up comedian, writer and performer who wrote and performed on The Ben Stiller Show and spent eight years as writer and producer on The Simpsons . His stand-up special, I Know It's Wrong , was one of the best specials of the 2010s decade. In 2016, Gould created the IFC comedy horror series, Stan Against Evil . In 2021, his latest project is a webseries called Hanging with Docto...

Erica Rhodes is an actress and comedian who got her start at the age of 10, performing on the nationally syndicated public radio hit, A Prairie Home Companion . Rhodes began her stand-up comedy career two decades later, inspired by a bad audition. But things have looked up for her since then. She has guest starred on such sitcoms as New Girl , Modern Family , and Veep , put out her first comedy al...

Maronzio Vance has appeared on Wanda Sykes: Wanda Does It , Jamie Foxx's   Laffapolooza , Last Comic Standing , and The Tonight Show , and put out a half-hour special on Comedy Central, back when those credits seemed to mean something. Vance has released a double-album of comedy called  20, out on Blonde Medicine, laced with his understated style and cutting wit. The album's title refers to the 20...

Ester Steinberg started performing stand-up on the lunch tables of her high school in Tampa before attending NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. While living in Los Angeles before the pandemic, she produced and hosted a regular comedy show in the Kibitz Room of Canter's Deli, co-starred in the Oxygen reality series Funny Girls , and got New Faces at Just For Laughs Montreal in 2015. She has since appe...

Eric Andre may just be America's, if not the world's greatest prankster (with all due respect to Britain's Sacha Baron Cohen and Canada's Nathan Fielder). After first rising on the comedy scene as a stand-up, Andre first made waves in TV with appearances on Don't Trust the B— in Apartment 23 , 2 Broke Girls , and Man Seeking Woman . But it was his chaotic Adult Swim anti-talk show, The Eric Andre...

Danny Jolles is a stand-up comedian best known for his role acting and singing as George on The CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend . His other TV credits include Hulu's Ramy , Comedy Central's Corporate , Netflix's Aunty Donna's House , and Quibi's Royalties . As a stand-up, Jolles was a New Face at Montreal's Just For Laughs in 2017, and followed that up with a performance on The Late Show with Stephen Col...

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, RushTix provided special ticket offers to subscribers for live events including comedy shows, concerts, and theatrical productions in the San Francisco Bay Area. The lockdowns across America in March 2020 changed everything. Jill Bourque pivoted RushTix to become a provider solely of live-streaming comedy shows centered on allowing fans to interact with their favorite...

Christina Anthony is an East St. Louis native who came up through the Chicago comedy scene. Anthony joined The Second City, where she performed with e.t.c. and the touring company, and co-wrote three award-nominated sketch revues for the legendary comedy institution. But she almost never got the recognition she deserved in Chicago or Los Angeles, and was ready to hang up her acting career before r...

Gary Anthony Williams has been improvising since the 1980s, when he was part of an Atlanta troupe called Laughing Matters. You've seen Williams on TV shows such as Boston Legal , where he played a crossdressing lawyer, or as Abe on Malcom in the Middle . He also co-starred on The Soul Man on TV Land, and provided voices for animated shows from The Boondocks, American Dad!, Doc McStuffins, and Bles...

Dan Ahdoot is a stand-up comedian who has performed on The Tonight Show, and developed TV shows with FOX, CBS, NBC and Freeform. But Ahdoot is enjoying his greatest success now, with recurring roles on not one but two Netflix hit series — as a car salesman for "Karate Kid" Danny LaRusso in Cobra Kai , and as an engineer working for The Crew with Kevin James. That's not quite what his parents had i...

Identical twins Keith and Kenny Lucas were born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, separating only to attend different law schools at Duke and NYU. They reunited after both quit the law to pursue a comedy career together, with a stoner persona that eventually got them a Netflix special in 2017, The Lucas Bros On Drugs . They've also enjoyed writing and performing with the sketch group Friends of Th...