The Department of Tangents Podcast

I interviewed Daniel Sloss a few weeks back for the Boston Globe when he came to town with his new show X , a deeply funny and sometimes devastating look at masculinity and the #MeToo movement. You can find that piece in the archives at bostonglobe.com in the February 21 edition . There are two segments I wanted you to hear that didn't make the final story. The first is about offensive jokes, and...

This week's episode is a conversation with Michael Gerber, publisher and editor of humor and satire magazine The American Bystander . There are hundreds, maybe thousands or more places to get satire and humor online. But The American Bystander is the one place dedicated to it in print. You can subscribe to a PDF version, but everything flows from the print version – its design and construction are...

I first became aware of Ted Drozdowski when I was working at the Boston Phoenix , reading his reviews and features as I helped to transfer them from the print edition to the Web. It wasn't until later, when I put together a benefit show and Ted stepped in as a player and an organizer, that I really got to see how powerful a guitar player and songwriter he was and is. Then I got to see how he put t...

This is an inadvertently Nashville-themed edition, as featured interview subject, comics artist/creator and musician Guy Gilchrist, and the musician behind this week's featured track, Ted Drozdowski, ply their trades in Music City. And for the second week in a row, the featured guest has a Jim Henson connection. A bit from his bio – Gilchrist created the Muppets comic strip and worked on Fraggle R...

Greetings and welcome back to the Department of Tangents Podcast! We are turning 80 today with this episode, featuring an interview with writer, puppet creator, producer, and all around problem solver Bill Diamond, whom I interviewed live back in November at the NorthEast Comic Con & Collectible Extravaganza , which is happening again next week out in Boxboro, Massachusetts.  Diamond had a wonderf...

This is a special edition of the Department of Tangents Podcast, a look back at the year in horror films with filmmakers, musicians, and writers Michael J. Epstein and Sophia Cacciola , who released their own horror film in 2018 called Clickbait . We talked about the best, the most disappointing, and a few mixed reviews, including bigger releases like Hereditary , A Quiet Place , Halloween , Sorry...

This week's episode is a panel discussion with comedians Kathe Farris , Emily Ruskowski , Erin Spencer , and Carolyn Plummer with new music from illuminati hotties . It's the very first time the Department of Tangents was recorded live in front of an audience. The North East Comic Con and Collectibles Extravaganza expanded its podcast panels and its comedy offerings this year, and I was lucky to n...

This week's episode is a panel discussion with comedians Kathe Farris , Emily Ruskowski , Erin Spencer , and Carolyn Plummer with new music from illuminati hotties . It's the very first time the Department of Tangents was recorded live in front of an audience. The North East Comic Con and Collectibles Extravaganza expanded its podcast panels and its comedy offerings this year, and I was lucky to n...

This week's episode is a bit different from previous episodes, in that it doesn't feature an interview with one person about their work. For the Thanksgiving week episode, I am celebrating a couple of things for which I feel very thankful, and that it the existence of The Kids In the Hall and Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Both happen to be celebrating 30th anniversaries in television this year, s...

This week's episode is a bit different from previous episodes, in that it doesn't feature an interview with one person about their work. For the Thanksgiving week episode, I am celebrating a couple of things for which I feel very thankful, and that it the existence of The Kids In the Hall and Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Both happen to be celebrating 30th anniversaries in television this year, s...

I've written about Ryan Lee Crosby 's music in the past. I'm not sure when the first time was, but back then he had finished playing with his rock band, Cancer To the Stars, and had moved on to a more acoustic singer/songwriter sound. He has been the type of musician that, if you lose track of him for a little while, he may be doing something completely different when you find your way back.  That...

I have known Perry Serpa for several years as a press guy. He has been a regular in my inbox, sending me notices about new music. A couple of years ago, I was surprised when he sent me a press release about his own music, helming a band called The Sharp Things . After doing my homework, I found out he is a skillful pop and rock craftsman, and I featured a print interview with him about Everybody E...

Gad Elmaleh has a fascinating story. He was born in Casablanca, went to college in Montreal, and then moved to France where he became a stand-up superstar. Three years ago, he moved from the place where he is most popular to America, where he was somewhat known but not a huge star. He was still learning English, and his goal was to get good enough to be able to do an hour in English. He accomplish...

This episode is an interview with author Mike Vago with new comedy from Shawn Carter. Vago is a talented writer and humor columnist. You may have seen his Wiki Wormhole feature , which has run for the past five years in the Onion's A.V. Club . Or you might have seen his debut novel, Selfdestructible , about super heroes who have to deal with real-world problems.  A teenager discovers he can set th...

This week's episode is a minicast, an interview with Paula Finn, author of Sitcom Writers Talk Shop: Behind the Scenes with Carl Reiner, Norman Lear, and Other Geniuses of TV Comedy . It's a collection of interviews with some of the finest writers in television history, including big names like Reiner, Lear, James L. Brooks, Larry Charles, Phil Rosenthal, Mike Reiss, and Al Jean, and some importan...

I love Halloween, and I live just a few minutes from Salem, Massachusetts, celebrated for the Salem Witch Trials and home of a full month of Halloween insanity through the month of October. You'd think someone would have created a horror-themed festival for the city a long time ago, but it wasn't until last year that the Salem Horror Fest sprung up, and with it the shorts program where I saw Cari...

I was lucky enough to see Summer of '84 a few weeks ago in Salem, Massachusetts, not far from where Matt Leslie grew up in Ipswich. I had not heard of the film before, but it was sponsored by the Salem Horror Fest , and I trust the tastes of the folks who run that, so I went into it with no hype, knowing virtually nothing about it. I greatly enjoyed the film. It has the same vibe as movies I enjoy...

If you listened to EP69 with comedian and author Guy Branum , you heard a little taste of the new PR Newman album, Turn Out . If not, I hope you'll take a listen and come back to this conversation. There is a lot to talk about with this music. I got an advance of the album a month or so ago, and wound up listening to it in the car over and over for the next several days – which is the mark of a go...

I am honored to have Guy Branum as my interview guest this week. He is an accomplished television writer, having worked on Chelsea, Lately and written for Joan Rivers , as well as one of the most consistently entertaining sitcoms of the past decade, The Mindy Project . He also currently hosts Talk Show The Game Show on truTV , on which guests get points for witty stories, just the right amount of...

A few weeks ago, I traveled to Rhode Island for NECON 38 , the 38th edition of Northeastern Writers Conference. It's also known as Camp NECON, and it is attended mostly by horror writers, aspiring horror writers like myself, and fans. It was my first time at the conference, but it didn't feel that way. It is a professional conference, with a full slate of panels on writing and horror-related art,...

Jessica Pilot has one of the best jobs in the business. She finds stand-up comedians for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and helps them perfect their set for television. That means watching as much stand-up comedy as she possibly can, at festivals, in clubs, or, every once in a while, in a pizza shop. As I am recording this voiceover now, she is out scouting at the Just For Laughs Festival. It'...

Myq Kaplan's mind is in constant motion. If you saw him early on in his career, you might have caught him in a constant barrage of one- and two-line jokes, all quick-witted stuff that would flit from one premise to the next. Over the years, Kaplan has retained that rhythm, but he has developed the ideas more. Those smaller bits are woven around a larger theme, as with last year's No Kidding in whi...

One of the best things you can do as a fan of any art is to go into something with no real expectations and find something you think is wonderful. That explains my relationship with The English Beat. The band played their first show in 1979 and were part of the two-tone movement in the early 80s, but I didn't hop on board until I saw the band last year. They were on the Retro Futura Tour , which a...

This is yet another episode springing from the 2018 Women In Comedy Festival here in Boston. It had been a very long time since I'd gotten the chance to catch up with Julie Goldman , so long that neither of us could quite remember exactly when we'd first met or talked. I interviewed her for the Boston Globe to preview the festival, and the conversation went so many different directions, I wanted t...

Years ago, I reviewed Mark Geary 's album Ghosts for the sadly departed Boston Phoenix. I would pop that CD in my player on occasion, but fell out of touch with his music for a while. Then a couple of months before this interview, I got an instant message from Geary on Facebook that he'd be playing a few miles away. It was around two in the morning, but I got my tickets a few minutes later, and sa...