Tom Rhodes Smart Camp

This episode was recorded On The Road Driving from Las Vegas to Los Angeles I continue my chat with legendary punk rock poet Dr. John Cooper Clarke!   Audio Cameo: Alan Ginsberg Reading Howl Audio Cameo: Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver   End Song:  Little Richard   "The Girl Can't Help It"                                                                                                  

  On the road with John Cooper Clarke from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. End song: The Girl On Death Row - Duane Eddy/ Lee Hazlewood  

Rhodesies Smartcamp Book Review: Dillinger's Wild Ride by Elliott J. Gorn (book review) Endsong:  Billy Grammer - The Ballad Of John Dillinger 1968  

As a member of the Screen Actors Guild I get viewing copies of each film that is nominated for Academy Awards every Oscar season. It is one of the perks I most enjoy about being a member of SAG. However, because of my busy touring schedule I was unable to watch the movies before the actual Academy Awards happened. Recently when I was home visiting my Mother I caught up on all of the movies I had m...

John Rhodes is my big brother and although we disagree on everything politically I love him very much and he is one of the greatest heroes I have ever had in my life and that is why it is my pleasure to present to you now the one and only John Rhodes!   This episode was recorded in Claremont, Florida. End song: One Fine Morning by Callahan  

Howard Mabie was my Varsity baseball coach at Oviedo high school and he was one of the most influential people I had during my young life. Coach Mabie had a way of inspiring people and bringing out the best that they had to offer. He is a top quality human being who had a major impact on many lives in his coaching career and he was an integral part of what made Oviedo, Florida such a golden place...

I first met Nick Doody in Meribel, France when we were both performing at the Altitude festival together. Since then I have worked with him many times in London and Edinburgh. He is a striver and an achiever because he is not lazy and is always trying to bust out new material which I always find inspiring. I like his style and his intelligence that he brings to the stage and most importantly in th...

Karl Spain is one of the most naturally funny human beings I have met in all my years as a stand up comedian. If you are unfamiliar with his presence on this earth than his wit and charm of this conversation will make you a fan of his for life. He never fails to make me laugh hard gut tightening laughter and that is why it is my pleasure to present to you now the one and only Karl Spain!   This ep...

I have been a fan of Eleanor Tiernan since I first worked with her in Dublin many years ago. Since then I have worked with her in London, Chicago and Edinburgh and my strong feelings about her brilliant comedy only gets reconfirmed every time I see her perform.    This past October 2014 I worked with her again in Galway at the Galway International comedy festival. She was doing a shot called the '...

Jesse Joyce is a supreme bad ass when it comes to writing, creating and producing head crunching comedy thunder. I first met Jesse when we both performed on Dave Attell's Comedy Underground show for Comedy Central. Jesse not only performed on that show but he was also the main writer for Dave who helped him shape his monologues for that show. I next saw and worked with Jesse when I did @midnight f...

When I think of Andy Andrist I am reminded of a Bob Dylan quote "Never give anyone a hard time because you don't know what they have been through or what burden they may be carrying."   I met Andy at one of Doug Stanhope's desert parties and admittedly Andy was whacked out of his skull on psychedelic mushrooms at the time.    We recount this story in this conversation because I was greatly annoyed...

Ophira Eisenberg is one of the most lovable human beings and powerful performers I have ever met in all my years in entertainment.   She is the darling of NPR, being heavily involved in their successful story telling series The Moth and she also hosts the weekly NPR game show Ask Me Anything.   Because of these sterling credits I had expected her to be more of a story based performer, but even tho...

Richard Leiby is one of the most respected journalists in the United States. He was one of the first reporters to write about Scientology in the 1980s and he has covered the Iraq & Afghanistan wars. For several years he was the bureau chief in Pakistan for the Washington Post. He is now senior writer and editor Style Section of the Washington Post where he has worked for nearly 25 years.    I have...

Paul Provenza is a true Renaissance man of comedy. Having gain worldwide critical success for his film the Aristocrats, the history of the world's dirtiest joke, he went on to create and star as the host of the comedy cult classic series the Green Room. Then if that wasn't enough to solidify a career he thereafter co-produced the show Set List, where comedians go onstage with nothing prepared and...

Brent Weinbach is one of the most inventive and absurdly hilarious young comedians I can recommend to people at the moment.     I first met Brent many years ago when he was starting out in San Francisco. He is always exciting to watch because you never know where his premises for jokes will come from.    He was also at the Edinburgh Fringe festival in 2014 and I got to see him destroy the intellig...

Not since Gutenberg's printing press has one human being's inventions improved the quality of life for people as much as Apple co-founder and principle creator Steve Wozniak.    I met Steve last month when he came to my show in Lake Tahoe. Fortunately for me the Woz loves jokes, humor and comedy in general so after sending him several heart felt e-mails requesting to chat with him he agreed, so la...

John Cooper Clarke is quite possibly the coolest human being walking the earth and performing on it's stages today. He is the English language's premier punk rock poet who started out in his verbal vocation in the late 1970s performing in clubs with the Sex Pistols, The Buzzcocks, Elvis Costello and Joy Division. For a brief period he lived with Nico from Velvet Underground. He invented the street...

This episode was recorded in Venice Beach, CA   I met Louis Katz in December 2013 when we were both filming Dave Attell's Comedy Underground for Comedy Central in New York City.  I was impressed with his punching power and how offbeat his topics were.  Like a freight train out of nowhere this peaceful looking guy was coming out with dark twisted melodramatic heroic tales in his joke premises and I...

If comedy were boxing I would rank Paul Ogata in the top ten of the all around, pound for pound, heavy hitters.    I first bonded Paul when we did Beerfest in Singapore together years ago. Beerfest is one of the funnest experiences you can plan for yourself on a visit to Singapore, with it's outdoor music and beer tents but as a comedian with loud music blasting through canvas it is one of the tou...

Robert Hawkins is not only one of the funniest human beings alive he is also one of my dearest best friends. Robert is of those rarest creatures in that he is almost as funny off stage as he is onstage . I first meet Robert in the early 1990s when we were both playing at the River Center comedy club together in San Antonio, Texas. Robert was the MC, I was the middle act and Nick DiPalo was the hea...

The day we recorded this, it was brutally cold rain with heavy winds outside.   Todd Barry is a perennial force of continuous head busting comedy for many decades now. The fact that Todd grew up in Florida and that he is one of the most respected comedians to have ever have started out there makes him feel like he is a part of my extended family. As long as I have been around, Todd has been around...

  You are about to experience the creative power of Sananda Maitreya!   The man has been a hero of mine since he first burst onto the scene because I had read that he grew up in Florida and then went on to become an internationally renowned artist living in Europe and still tantalizing the world with his creations.   With his last release of 'Return To Zooathalon' and his brand new release of 'The...

Kevin Meaney is one of my favorites because I will never forget watching him on television with my Dad and he made us both laugh out loud together. From then on my Dad would quote one of Kevin's jokes to me when he thought I might be on drugs "What are you hopped up on goofballs?"   To see Kevin Meaney perform today is to see him funnier than he has ever been.   If Depression, jail time and being...

Pete Johansson is someone I always love to run into because when I see him it always results in intelligent lofty conversation. He has never been one to waste his time on small talk chit chat as his brain has more value to offer and he has never been one to bullshit anyone.    Since I first met Pete we have had epic wine drinking evenings where we dissected the world's problems and laughed ourselv...

Rich Hall is to comedy what Johnny Cash is to country music.   The man is a living legend, having won Emmys for his writing for David Lettermen, was on SNL and Not Necessarily The News, he invented his own language with Snigglets and he won the grand prize at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2000.    For me personally, Rich Hall has been a great friend and someone I look up to who inspires me, esp...