Today's Guest: A.J. Jacobs, author, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible A.J. Jacobs must have the best magazine job in America. As editor-at-large for Esquire, here are a few examples of recent stories appearing under his byline: • “My Outsourced Life,” detailing his... Continue Reading →
60 Curb Your Enthusiasm star Jeff Garlin’s Cheesy wild ride! PODCAST INTERVIEW
Today's Guest: Jeff Garlin, comedian, actor, "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "The Goldbergs" Today is a great day to be Jeff Garlin. And for him, tomorrow will probably be an even better day. The sixth season of the hugely popular and hysterically funny HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” starring Larry David and co-starring Garlin, is now... Continue Reading →
56 Hey! It’s The Daily Show’s Craig Kilborn! INTERVIEW
Originally Published October 7, 1996 Attention, channel surfers! If E!'s "Talk Soup" gives you the giggles, if you're suffering "TV Nation" withdrawal, if Dennis Miller makes you laugh, Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" is guaranteed to make you guffaw, harrumph and occasionally choke on a yuk-yuk. "The Daily Show" is deceptively simple television. Presented five... Continue Reading →
40 Before Breaking Bad, AMC was Rupert’s Remember WENN! INTERVIEW
Originally Published March 3, 1997 Here's how long it's been since radio was the predominant form of entertainment in the world: Rupert Holmes turned 50 on Feb. 24 and he missed the heyday of that era altogether. The significance of this? Holmes is the creator of "Remember WENN," an American Movie Classics sitcom that harkens... Continue Reading →
37 Before Dancing, Tom Bergeron hosted Fox After Breakfast! INTERVIEW
Today's Guest: Tom Bergeron, TV host, "Fox After Breakfast," "Dancing with the Stars," "America's Funniest Home Videos" Originally Published February 24, 1997 Is the 6,500-square-foot "Fox After Breakfast" TV set really a complete working apartment? Real enough for comedian John Leguizamo. Given the choice of rooms in which to be interviewed, Leguizamo chooses the... Continue Reading →
36 Zippy the Pinhead cartoonist Bill Griffith and polka dots! INTERVIEW
Is there room in prime time TV for another pinhead? And not just any pinhead, but the original, Zippy the Pinhead? Because ready or not, he appears headed toward a cable channel near you, possibly as soon as this fall. Bill Griffith, 53, who created Zippy as an afterthought in an underground comic book more... Continue Reading →
32-33 Seinfeld’s own Soup Nazi, Larry Thomas, drops by Mr. Media! PODCAST INTERVIEW
(UPDATED JULY 5, 2015: When I discovered the original audio player for this interview with actor Larry Thomas no longer played correctly, I went digging in my audio archives, found the original from June 8, 2007 and upgraded the entire track. But it sounded a little funky. I looked again and there was a... Continue Reading →
29 Billy Bob Thornton: Bad Santa actor to Beautiful Door singer! PODCAST INTERVIEW
You just can’t pigeonhole Billy Bob Thornton. Think about the movie roles he’s most famous for and see what, if any, connection there is: Carl in Sling Blade; Hank Grotowski in Monster’s Ball; Morris Buttermaker in Bad News Bears; Coach Gaines in Friday Night Lights, and my favorite, Willy in Bad Santa. Who would... Continue Reading →
27 Comic book writer Chuck Dixon on Simpsons, Batman, Bane, more! VIDEO INTERVIEW
Today's Guest: Chuck Dixon, comic book writer, "The Simpsons, "Batman" Part 1 of 2 One of the most anticipated movies of this summer -- no, not Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix -- and no, Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer -- is The Simpsons Movie. And while Matt Groening couldn’t make... Continue Reading →
26 Newbomb Turk and the arc of incomparable comic Robert Wuhl! PODCAST INTERVIEW
Today's Guest: Robert Wuhl, comedian, actor, The Hollywood Knights, Cobb, Batman, Blaze, "Arli$$," "Assume the Position" Robert Wuhl cracks me up. Always has, always will. His HBO series, “Arli$$," about an over-ambitious Hollywood sports agent, was must-see TV in my house for years, and I’ve seen his first movie, Hollywood Knights, hundreds of times.... Continue Reading →