A world-class juggler and visual artist who has performed in 45 different countries, touring solo work and collaborating with companies such as Spiegelworld, The Gandini Juggling Project, Cie Jérôme Thomas, Les 7 doigts de la main, Cirkus Cirkör, Cie Ea Eo, and Cirque du Soleil. Jay is the former head teacher of juggling at the Dans och Cirkushögskolan in Stockholm , Sweden (2000-2019), and has published a book about contemporary juggling titled 5 Catches . He co-hosts a podcast published by the...
Oct 26, 2023•48 min•Season 5Ep. 25
At the age of 15 while growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Lois knew she was destined to be producer/director. What she didn’t know was that over the next 40 years she would stay in Milwaukee and produce and direct content in every industry sector: corporate, non-profit, education, healthcare, and her favorite, broadcast TV. For the past 15 years she teamed up with comedian/actor John McGivern and created the number one local PBS show in the country, and was awarded two Emmy's for her effort. (Y...
Oct 19, 2023•44 min•Season 5Ep. 24
A British video game developer and director best known as the writer of Her Story , the two Silent Hill games, Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories , and Immortality . He previously worked as a game director at Climax Studios before leaving in 2014 to become an independent game developer. He published his first indie game, Her Story , in June of 2015. In 2017, Sam founded Half Mermaid, a video game production company based in Brooklyn, New York....
Oct 12, 2023•57 min•Season 5Ep. 23
A musical standup comedian with appearances on Last Comic Standing and NBC’s Bring On the Funny . Kristin has six full-length comedy albums and her own Dry Bar Comedy Special. Kristin grew up a minister’s daughter in a small town in West Texas. Much like Footloose, she was raised in a no-drinking, no-dancing, no instrumental music environment, so she immediately took up drinking, dancing and playing an instrument. Proving that the almighty has a strange sense of humor, Kristin came out of the cl...
Oct 05, 2023•44 min•Season 5Ep. 22
An award-winning global director of cirque, cinema and stage. As a comic act designer he specializes in clowns, characters and story components. Stefan is the author of The Power of HA!Connecting Through the Heart of Humor. He studied theatre in college only to realize that his true passion lay in the cross-over to the circus arts, so he set his sights on Cirque du Soleil. As a result of his intuitive gift for mining actors’ true potential, various sit-coms hired him to coach actors, including T...
Sep 28, 2023•46 min•Season 5Ep. 21
Billy McGuigan is the creator director of several internationally touring shows including Rave On! The Buddy Holly Experience , Yesterday and Today: The Interactive Beatles Experience , and Billy McGuigan’s Pop Rock Orchestra . Career highlights include performing with Buddy Holly’s contemporaries Tommy Allsup and Sonny West and headlining Las Vegas with Yesterday and Today: The Interactive Beatles Experience . Billy’s love of music comes directly from his father who introduced Billy to The Beat...
Sep 21, 2023•45 min•Season 5Ep. 20
A production designer and illustrator from Portland known for solving visual problems across both animation and children’s books. Jenn just wrapped her next kid’s book, Cactus Queen, a non-fiction picture book written by Lori Alexander for Calkins Creek. Other recent works include designing color for Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio , illustrating on Henry Selick’s Wendell & Wild , and illustrating The Gardener of Alcatraz: A True Story , a recently released non-fiction picture book written by...
Sep 14, 2023•46 min•Season 5Ep. 19
A theatre director, puppeteer, and African American theatre historian and archivist that seeks to disrupt generational curses of self-hate, racism, homophobia, and religious intolerance. Intellectually curious and emotionally dexterous, Jerrell is at home in a wide range of genres including, but not limited to, American Realism, Magical Realism, Traditional and Contemporary Musical Theatre, Poetic Black-Queer Narratives, and Live Spectacle Events. He is the recipient of a 2023 Henson Foundation ...
Sep 07, 2023•50 min•Season 5Ep. 18
More backstage banter from the green room of The Lucille Ball Comedy Festival presented by The National Comedy Center in Lucy’s hometown of Jamestown, NY. Comics from across the U.S. whose credits include Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, Last Comic Standing, Conan, Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Late Show with David Letterman bring their unique brand of humor to the podcast and take the audience on a journey into their creative process. This episode features observations, insight and ...
Aug 31, 2023•1 hr•Season 5Ep. 17
Backstage at The Lucille Ball Comedy Festival presented by The National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York. Comics from around the nation who have appeared on Comedy Central, MTV, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and The Late Late Show with James Corden will be performing their newest and often truest material. This episode features Tony Deyo, Ashley Austin Morris, Adam Mamawala, Turner Sparks, Sarah Tollemache and Jon Laster. After their sets in The Tropicana Club (a re-creation of Ricky R...
Aug 24, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 5Ep. 16
An award-winning theatrical costume designer who has collaborated with The American Conservatory Theater, Teatro Zinzanni, The Roundabout Theatre Company, Cabaret Zazou, California Shakespeare Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Walnut Street Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, TheatreWorks, Classic Stage Company, Northlight Theatre, The Papermill Playhouse and The Pasadena Playhouse. She has created costumes for A Christmas Carol , Comedy of Errors , Test Match , Tales of the City , Scapin, The Gove...
Aug 17, 2023•52 min•Season 5Ep. 15
A troupe of interdisciplinary performing artists from Pittsburgh that create original outdoor interactive music spectacles that have toured to Europe and Asia, performed Off-Broadway and on Broadway, from Lincoln Center to Stanford University, in over 250 venues in 36 of the United States and throughout Canada. Led by co-artistic directors Jackie Dempsey and Steve O’Hearn, Squonk creates joyful, boisterous events by fusing fantastical visual design with playful staging and high-energy original m...
Aug 10, 2023•46 min•Season 5Ep. 14
Often credited with single-handedly reviving the lost art of the concert poster, his creative career rose largely out of his enthusiasm for Austin’s growing underground punk rock scene in the early eighties. In 1981, he began designing and posting black and white flyers for friends’ bands on telephone poles. His reputation quickly grew as an artist whose work was graphically compelling and culturally gripping. An entirely self-taught artist, Kozik eventually transitioned into producing large, co...
Aug 03, 2023•45 min•Season 5Ep. 13
Rachel Bloom is best known as the co-creator and star of the CW musical dramedy, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. She has won the 2016 Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Series – Musical or Comedy , the 2016 Critics’ Choice Award for Best Actress in a TV Comedy , and the 2016 TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy . In 2019, Rachel won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics alongside songwriting partners Jack Dolgen and the late Adam Schlesinger for Antidepressants Are...
Jul 27, 2023•51 min•Season 5Ep. 12
Jeremy Davis and Clay Johnson and their fiery 17 piece big band are collectively known as The Fabulous Equinox Orchestra. All across North America, audiences have fallen in love with these sophisticated Southern gentleman and their high-energy show. A collection of the greatest songs, the best original arrangements and phenomenal musicianship, is the signature of these two exceptional musicians as they bring their rich friendship and charm to the stage. Fashioned in the style and swagger of the ...
Jul 20, 2023•53 min•Season 5Ep. 11
Seth is a director, actor, teacher, and the co-founder & co-artistic director of The Barrow Group in New York City. In his storied career as a director he was involved with the award-winning shows My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (Lucille Lortel Award for Best Solo Show, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Solo Show), Sleepwalk With Me (Nightlife Award for Outstanding Comedian in a Major Performance), The Tricky Part (Obie Award, Drama Desk nominations for Best Play and Best So...
Jul 13, 2023•53 min•Season 5Ep. 10
An artist, cartoonist, and the author of the book Skip to the Fun Parts: Cartoons and Complaints About Creativity . Dana has been a contributor to the New Yorker Daily Shouts since 2018. Her online cartoon series The Worried Well was syndicated by Andrews McMeel Universal in 2016 and can be seen online on GoComics.com. She has illustrated for The Phillips Collection, the DC Public Library, Politics and Prose, and Museum Hack, and her artwork and murals can be seen at various restaurants in the D...
Jul 06, 2023•39 min•Season 5Ep. 9
Tom Dudzick is one of the few playwrights who makes a living at it. His first play, a Christmas tale called Greetings! , opened at New York’s John Houseman Theatre and starred Darren McGavin and Greg Edelman. It is now a holiday favorite across the country and has had well over one hundred productions. His next play, Over the Tavern , the first in a semi- autobiographical trilogy, has over three hundred productions under its belt, with many box office records broken throughout the U.S. Tavern ha...
Jun 29, 2023•45 min•Season 5Ep. 8
An award-winning storyteller, comedian, motivational speaker, Huffington Post Contributor, and cast member of The Fashion Hero television show on Amazon Prime. She is the author of Who Hijacked My Fairy Tale, The Land of If Only , The Story Formula , and The Gutsy Girls Pocket Guide to Public Speaking . Kelly was a featured entertainer for Holland America Cruise Lines and the keynote speaker for the International Toastmasters Convention. Kelly’s wacky wit and powerful stories have charmed hearts...
Jun 22, 2023•47 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Beowulf Boritt is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award® winning set for Susan Stroman's production of New York, New York . He designed the Tony Award® winning set for James Lapine's Act One . He has received four additional Tony Award® nominations for his designs of The Scottsboro Boys, POTUS, Therese Raquin, and Flying Over Sunset, for which he won a Drama Desk award. His book about set design, Transforming Space Over Time , is available on Amazon. He is the founder and manager o...
Jun 15, 2023•58 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Marja Harmon plays Angelica Schuyler on the "And Peggy" tour of Hamilton . Her Broadway credits include Book of Mormon , Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , and New York City Center’s Merrily We Roll Along . She starred as Nala in the national tour of The Lion King , as well as regional productions of Aida, Ragtime , Hairspray, Dreamgirls , Grease, and more. Her TV appearances include God Friended Me , Murphy Brown , and Jessica Jones . Stay up-to-date with Marja by visiting her @marjaharmony on Instagram o...
Jun 08, 2023•47 min•Season 5Ep. 5
Simone Giertz is a Swedish inventor, maker, robotics enthusiast, TV host and professional content creator on YouTube. Simone’s creations include an alarm clock that slaps the user to wake them up, a lipstick applier, and an invention that shampoos the user’s hair. Giertz showcased several of these robots on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert . In 2016, Simone joined Tested.com , collaborating with Adam Savage on her first project, the popcorn feeding helmet. In 2017, she hosted the comedy TV sho...
Jun 01, 2023•51 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Doug McIntyre spent twenty-years as a television/screen writer and producer including the hit series Married… With Children , WKRP in Cincinnati , Mike Hammer – Private Eye , and the critically-acclaimed PBS series, Liberty’s Kids , which earned Doug a Humanitas Prize nomination for excellence in television writing. Together with his wife Penny Peyser, Doug wrote, produced, directed the award winning film: Trying to Get Good: the Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon . McIntyre is also the page one colum...
May 25, 2023•53 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Kira is an animation supervisor who joined Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2007 as an animation trainee in the talent development program. She’s contributed to a host of Disney Animation titles, including Oscar® winners Zootopia , Paperman and Frozen , plus Bolt , Tangled , Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice , Tangled Ever After and Wreck-It Ralph , as well as Ralph Breaks the Internet and Encanto , on which she was Head of Animation. Previously, Lehtomaki served as a junior animator on Alvin...
May 18, 2023•49 min•Season 5Ep. 2
A New York Times bestselling author of a dozen critically acclaimed picture books, which have sold more than five million copies combined. They include Dragons Love Tacos , Dragons Love Tacos 2: The Sequel , High Five , Gladys the Magic Chicken , Secret Pizza Party , Robo-Sauce , the Those Darn Squirrels trilogy, and El Chupacabras , which won the Texas Bluebonnet Award. Publishers Weekly called his #1 New York Times bestselling story collection The Ice Cream Machine a “madcap middle grade debut...
May 11, 2023•46 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Lia Chang is an actor, a multi-media content producer, activist, documentarian, corporate photographer and an award-winning filmmaker and co-founder of Bev’s Girl Films , making films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. Bev’s Girl Films’ debut short film, Hide and Seek was a top ten film in the Asian American Film Lab’s 2015 72 Hour Shootout Filmmaking Competition, and Lia received a Best Actress nomination. She is also the host and Executive Producer of a weekly Art...
Apr 20, 2023•44 min•Season 4Ep. 25
One of the jazz world's most acclaimed performers, possessing a potent combination of dynamic vocal abilities, impeccable phrasing, and powerful emotional resonance. Nicole's passionate, soulful voice and heartfelt charisma have earned her a Soul Train Award for “Best Traditional Jazz Performance," and four Top-10 jazz albums on U.S. Billboard , JazzWeek , HMV Japan and UK Sweet Rhythms charts. Heralded by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Japan Times, El Pais, Jazz Times, Essence...
Apr 13, 2023•56 min•Season 4Ep. 24
A DGA-winning and Emmy-nominated filmmaker, writer, producer, and author, known for his signature style and discerning eye for talent. He is the founder of the production company Feigco Entertainment, as well as the content company Powderkeg Media, which aims to champion new voices with a commitment to female, LGBTQIA+ creators, and filmmakers of color. Feig is a visionary filmmaker with a proven track record of female-led hits that have grossed over one billion dollars worldwide including “Brid...
Apr 06, 2023•52 min•Season 4Ep. 23
An award-winning humor writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker Daily Shouts, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, US Weekly Fashion Police, Scary Mommy, Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal and various other outlets. Wendi is the author of the middle-grade book Ginger Mancino, Kid Comedian and the humorous memoir I’m Wearing Tunics Now , and a contributor to many anthologies. Her humor pieces have been performed by award-winning actresses including Uzo Aduba, Sharon Horgan a...
Mar 30, 2023•53 min•Season 4Ep. 22
A widely accomplished musical director, conductor, pianist, composer, and arranger, working primarily in the realm of musical theatre. His experience on Broadway includes both conducting and playing keyboards for Cinderella, How to Succeed in Business…, The Drowsy Chaperone, The Producers, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Phantom of the Opera and Carousel . Larry has also served as Musical Director for national tours of Anastasia, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, Les Misérables, South Pacifi...
Mar 23, 2023•54 min•Season 4Ep. 21
