The JV Club with Janet Varney

The great Danielle Perez (Actor! Comedian! Writer!) joins JV to talk school musicals, standup styles, and the scientific (kinda) factors that go into establishing who those elusive top tier popular kids are, and why! Plus — the sweet sweet world of television comedy classic “Living Single!”

A big JV Club welcome to New Jersey native and current Baltimore resident, comedian Blaire Postman, who pinballs conversation topics with JV like a champ, including chatting about doing in musicals with a back brace, the misery of too many footnotes, and the lightbulb moment of an ADHD diagnosis, among other things! 

Oh my oh my oh my! What a joy to have podcast legend Lulu Miller (Radiolab, Invisibilia and the amazing new  TERRESTRIALS !) as our guest this week. Lulu and JV climb into the special secret hideout of their conversation to talk childhood and adulthood wonder and awe, making stuff with your hands, and the ingredients for great metaphorical and real-life salsa.

With the triumphant blare of a high school band trumpet and a twirl of a flag, this week we welcome comedian Mo Welch (Come Out, Come out pod,  Blair comic strip ) for a chat with JV covering Mo’s teen years in Illinois, discovering improv and standup, and a M.A.S.H. collaboration with a certain pro basketballer that we’re dying to see made real

This week brings you the inimitable multi-talented writer & more, Laura Krafft ("The Colbert Report," "The Harper House”), whose family tree and sibling dynamics make for perfect JV Club material. Plus! Some of JV’s favorite “movies you’d jump into” unexpected choices in the history of the podcast! 

It doesn’t take an armchair detective to understand what drew JV and the charming Kerri Doherty (The Goldbergs;  Out On The Lanai  podcast) to each other, but it DID take an awesome investigator to make their worlds collide. Now the two new friends discuss Girls who are Golden, Truth and Justice, and how Goonies never say die.

This will be one of our shorter episode descriptions, and here’s why: you simply MUST listen to this episode with Rose Abdoo ("Gilmore Girls!" “Hacks!" “Reboot!" More more more!), because you will be missing too much joy otherwise. Truly!

Pour this bit of sunshine into your ears (which sounds weirder than we meant it to) with the dear and inspiring Cricket Leigh (MAI in AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER!), whose own stories of teenage insecurity mixed with bravery and ambition make for a classic episode for what The JV Club is all about! 

Get a gorgeous mountain range in view and savor that green chile omelette with Migizi Pensoneau (“Reservation Dogs”), who takes us from Minnesota to New Mexico to Connecticut to… well, just get ready to travel. And bring your love of 80’s/90’s absurdist comedies with you! Plus: more love for "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and the scrumptiously watchable “Barkskins!"

This week asks the hard-hitting question: why? WHY can’t Janet stop saying “Shaker” when she means “Quaker?” Her dreamy Boy of Summer Abe Forman-Greenwald (Netflix’s "Big Mouth”) endeavors to figure it out, while also sharing tales of small-town Pennsylvania  youth and the gift of sitting in silence, even when someone’s making you do it! 

Stop the presses! Remember when we said we’d collected the entire Hey Riddle Riddle crew? NOT SO FAST! This week brings you delightful Boy of Summer, Arne Parrott, the talent behind the truly delicious various and sundry themes/songs/la-la-las to one of JV’s favorite podcasts. So put on your Ren Faire best and a wad of crabcake… it’s ON!

Grab your lobster roll and your trash juice for this week’s Boy of Summer, the wonderful Desmin Borges (You’re The Worst, Utopia)! JV and Dez talk contemporary adventures: losing your sense of taste and smell and finding it again through the wonder of an avocado; they talk past adventures: sports! Theatre! Da Bears!; and of course, they talk about their happy days playing often-miserable character...

This week brings you novelist, podcaster and Boy of Summer Toby Ball ( Crimewriters On ,  Strange Arrivals ), whose addition to The JV Club completes the Crimewriters On collection! In this episode you’ll not only learn about Toby’s teens and twenties, you’ll also hear him rescue JV from her own politics-and-media existential quagmire! So grab your favorite album and treat yourself to some ice cre...

The Hey Riddle Riddle Collector’s Set is complete! JV is delighted to welcome the ridiculously fast and funny JPC as this week’s Boy of Summer, along with a conversation about Catholic school Religion classes, early-onset improv magic syndrome (a term we just now made up), and what we can confidently say is one of The JV Club’s all-time-greatest “Boys of Summer” covers. And for all you HRR lovers...

Dive into this conversation with Boy of Summer - Boy of Star Wars - Boy of San Diego, Hector Navarro, who describes the delicate balance of being a well-behaved hooligan in those important teen formative years, how honest parental communication has its pros and cons, and how to jump into fandoms when you can’t celebrate your birthday! Plus: Oh M.J. Watson… how we love you!  

Venture into the magical world of Piff The Magic Dragon, who rose to fame from high school hijinx to local magic shows to Edinburgh to Penn & Teller to America’s Got Talent to his own show in Vegas! It’s enough to inspire any fledgling dragon! Or magician! This Boy of Summer reminds us that there are so many different ways and roads to take to become the thing you are, with plenty of Piff’s signat...

Delight in this week’s Boy of Summer, Manolo Moreno! Whom you might already know and love from Max Fun’s own  Dr. Gameshow ! Hear about Manolo’s teenage humanoid adventures, and what to do when you might be the Edward Scissorhands of… emotions. Then get your creative brain ready to write to the soothing sounds of water, and lasagna up!  

We’re pressing “pause” on our Boys of Summer series for this week so that we can bring you the brilliant Michaela Jill Murphy! If you’re an Avatar: The Last Airbender fan, you might know her also as “Jessie Flowers,” the professional acting name she gave herself as a kiddo. Which might be the most delightful thing ever. This conversation is the perfect companion piece to the shorter, more Toph-cen...

It’s time for the simply terrific Boy of Summer Matt Walsh (VEEP) and the many laughs that his delightful brain supplies… as JV goes DEEPLY PSYCHOLOGICALLY ANALYTICAL in this hard-hitting (not that hard-hitting) episode. So dip some crab legs in butter, uncork or unscrew some red wine, and check out Matt’s indie film  Unplugging !

Give yourself the gift of listening to the divine James Sie (also known as the Cabbage Merchant from ATLA, btw!) talk about perennial teenage years and his new novel,  All Kinds of Other , and get ready for a LOT of love for the book from JV! It’s a YA novel that anyone of any age can and should read, and it’s the perfect book to celebrate on during Pride Month with our sublime first June Boy of S...

Whether you love her as Cindy Brady in the Brady Bunch reboot movies, as Ty Lee in Avatar: the Last Airbender , or one of her other amazing endeavors, there is just a whole lot to be enjoyed about and with the fabulous Olivia Hack! A frank and very cool insider talk on Livin’ the “Dream” in LA from a young age, how to be in the moment and travel the world, and of course, mashed potatoes.  

This week brings you a very dynamic and impassioned conversation with Gina Viola , an activist/small business owner/mom/all-around great person who is also very much in the running for Mayor of Los Angeles! But the conversation stretches far outside the realm of Los Angeles, or California- and dives into some of the more complicated issues facing US culture today, as well as some really exciting a...

It’s our first Boy of Summer, pre-summer! Enjoy this summer teaser with the one and only Hal Sparks, who brings his energy, advice and fast-as-lightning humor to this conversation with JV. Covering topics like not being a dating dud! Confidence vs. arrogance! Ribeyes!

This week JV hangs with incredibly funny and cool comedian Amy Miller, who brings her light and humor to a wide range of subjects including, of course, one of JV’s own faves: being a teen in organized religion! And maybe even more enticing: Cool Rock Music Church! Plus: find out which M.A.S.H. alternate universe profession has Amy asking “…Was this your card?” (Wait- did that give too much away?)

Janet Varney joins her best pals Hal Lublin and Mark Gagliardi in a special #MaxFunDrive fueled crossover of "The JV Club" and " We Got This! " podcasts! The reason for this amazing crossover? To officially determine the best high school movie. This podcast was a special stretch goal that was reached with new MaxFun Members who pledged their support to both shows monthly contributions. If you love...