This Is Your Afterlife

Actor, clown, and physical theater artist extraordinaire Molly Brennan has performed in plays at the Goodman Theatre, emceed The Fly Honey Show, and toured the world with her legendary 500 Clown troupe (defunct for some time now). She soothes me with a beautiful New Hampshire memory, talk of her atheist upbringing and DIY ethic, and only the righteous kind of bitterness. Content warning: abandonme...

Jason P. Woodbury (Aquarium Drunkard, JPW) and I bring our mutual admiration society to the mics. It's an experiment. Do you like it? Content warning: UFO/UAP sighting, moments of rupture, dental hell, pretty AND funny, evangelical Christianity, Audio Adrenaline, loop. Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemah...

Comedian and TV writer Tim Barnes (The Tonight Show, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central) and I bond over our longing for disembodiment. Content warning: race, class, retail mirror reflections, abstraction, the Phantom Menace hype machine. Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher . Follow Tim: @TimBarnes451 on Twit...

Neo-Futurist Neil Bhandari and I really hit it off! We bonded over being big talkers and mischievous little guys (in the full convo you can hear on Patreon), and it was a joy to relate to his neuroses and listen to him describe moments of peace and LIFE. Content warning: India, Costa Rica, language barriers, extreme cold, the problem with the afterlife is figuring out the ages. Patreon supporters...

In this solo episode, I respond to a suggestion from Mom Stomp's Jo Scott to talk pet peeves. I also provide highly specific and surprisingly sincere affirmations. Content warning: human nature, (anti-)local pride, outside sounds, synchronicity, imaginary enemies, being present. Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.c...

Owen Black, one of the most interesting conversationalists I know, is a writer and once-a-year comedian on his birthday. Hot off his 35th birthday set, my old standup buddy and I talk about his travels, upbringing, relationship to Blackness, and his new Instagram project. Content warning: walking through town eating gelato in the South of France, hymn raising, Brazil, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, starving...

To kick off our first season on the theme of "Family Matters," we're talking about HBO's Succession : a show about daddy that's got a lot of mommy issues. While clearly positioned among HBO's prestige dramas (and currently Emmy campaigning as such), many critics and fans have made the case that Succession is quite clearly a comedy. So how do we read Succession ? And what is it trying to say about...

Hilarious and thoughtful comedian/my good friend Andrew Tisher delivers an all-time great episode. Content warning: noisy neighbors, highly personal afterlife cinema, Thomas Aquinas, Brooklyn Annoyance Theatre, college lunches during thunderstorms in New Mexico, what if hell is real? Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patr...

Here's the trailer for Genre Reveal Party. Writer/cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley and comedian/actor Dave Maher host this podcast exploring tv and movies through the lenses of politics and genre. Season 1 is "Family Matters," focusing on family stories like "Succession," "A Serious Man," "Star Trek: Picard," and "Fast X." Episodes drop on Fridays! Subscribe now, so you don't miss a single o...

On the heels of releasing his independent comedy album, David Feinberg Plays the Hits , David Feinberg joins me to talk about the beauty and guilt of shmying around. Content warning: grandfather dying, Jewish summer camp, casket library, resilience. Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher . Follow David on...

Vocalist and songwriter Stephanie Alma (Raro) almost got to the bottom of why she writes songs one night on the dance floor, and I can't let it go. Content warning: disability/crip culture, humble hopes, songwriting from pain, death is Mexican culture, perfecting whistle tone on Lake Shore Drive. Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afte...

It was only a matter of time before This Is Your Afterlife included lighthearted discussions of the Holocaust. I'm pleased they come in this episode with Hebrew & Arabic literature scholar Sheera Talpaz (Oberlin College). Content warning: Palestine, Israel, (anti-)Zionism, Auschwitz, "Never again" for whom?, middle school, motherhood, euthanasia rollercoaster. Patreon supporters make This Is Y...

Neil Bardhan ( First Person Arts , Broad Street Review ) is a flaneur with a taste for life's simple pleasures. He tells me about the childhood difficulties that shaped this point of view. Content warning: medical trauma, standstill traffic, sandwiches, book management systems, the fancy French words for the kind of guy Neil is. Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get full...

Kirk Rawlings from the excellent, genre-mashing band Courtesy joins me to talk about a moment that pulled the rug out from under his childhood and the game-changing depression treatment so many of us are curious about. Don't be fooled by this description, there are laughs. Content warning: depression, suicide, Trump, ketamine, plumbing. Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and g...

The drummer formerly known as the rapper J-Zone, Jay Mumford, tells me a story he's told many times: how he changed courses musically in his mid-30s. But this time he gets meta. I ask him if he likes talking about this! He reflects on nostalgia writ large and how it plays out in Instagram stories when people use old songs of his he hates. And we frame it all in terms of his switch being an ultimat...

NEW PODCAST ALERT! Enjoy the first episode of Abandoned Building, my solo podcast to generate and test material for my third one-man show. All episodes will live on Patreon, and I'm hoping for feedback from you all . Otherwise, it's less testing material and more throwing material down a well. Here are the steps into Abandoned Building: 1. Listen to the episode. 2. If it's fun for you, email me at...

"What if you fell in love with that?" Winslow Dumaine asks about all the feelings there are to feel other than happiness. The comedian, illustrator, writer, podcaster, and game and merch designer (what can't he do?!) is an artist of a type that's somewhat rare for This Is Your Afterlife: someone who takes death and darkness as their explicit subject matter. Content warning: turning pain into art,...

It's always nice when a guest is as afraid of death as I am. Bona fide magician Rebecca Spectre, who I know from her time as a standup comedian, joins me for the rare in-person conversation about how she'd like to be remembered and her well-examined reasons for performing magic. Content warning: magic, the corn kid, self-skepticism, egotistical funeral. Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterli...

At one point during recording, after a pee break, Nicholas Krgovich sat back down and told me, "I'm having fun." It was a tender moment, and the songwriter, singer, and musician brought that sweetness and curiosity to our entire conversation. He's a gem of a man who makes heart-opening music. Content warning: hating yourself for being gay, completely uncomplicated nap, accidentally paving the way...

Strong contender for Funniest Person on Earth Martin Urbano (This Fool, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Chris Gethard Presents) shares the performance situation that would be his hell, his desire to die in the apocalypse with everyone else, and the ups and downs of chasing your dreams. Normally, I save process talk for the full convos on Patreon, and there's certainly more of it there, but I had to include so...

Deep AND fun, this conversation with saxophonist and prolific collaborator Patrick Shiroishi is everything a This Is Your Afterlife episode is meant to be. For those counting, this makes 2 of 4 Fuubutsushi members I've had on the show. Content warning: Japanese internment camps, Taco Bell, ancestors, therapy, questionable shave, the Get Up Kids. Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possi...

Marcella Arguello no longer fears death, and she tells me (and you) why. Her first standup special—the loose, silly, direct, and original Bitch, Grow Up!— is out now on HBO Max. It's a blast, and so is this conversation. Content warning: cancer, dead parents, reality TV hatred, a cruise, postmortem truth serum, inspiration from MF DOOM. Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and g...

Completing the Unexplained Legends set with the second co-host of that wonderful comedy conspiracy podcast, Denis Len. Irish comedian, Edinburgh Fringe comrade-in-arms of mine, appearer on the BBC New Comedy Awards and the So You Think You're Funny? final, and consummate This Is Your Afterlife guest. We're in a new classic era, can you feel it? Content warning: existential crises, fear of death, f...

He is one half of the comedy conspiracy podcast Unexplained Legends, which is so funny it kept me from using it to fall asleep. He's a BBC New Comedy Awards nominee. He's an Irishman. We performed at the same warehouse venue above Bar Bados—a Scottish tiki bar, yes—at my first Edinburgh Fringe. I love Roger O'Sullivan, and I really, really think you will too. Content warning: warm water and cold t...

Raphael Jose Martinez is a punk rock Swiss Army knife of an artist, a fan of the show, and an open book. A real "(sensitive) dudes rock!" episode we got right here. Content warning: difficult-to-express thoughts around disability and deafblindness that we awkwardly but I think productively sort through, matter-of-fact death 'tudes, playing Misfits at the funeral, me ripping off the Hirokazu Koreed...