This Alley Oop podcast episode takes place Live From Vietnam! (Or I guess recorded) Comedian Paul Morrissey is in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)  for the Magner's Comedy Festival and he talks with fellow comedians Matthew Giffen (United Kingdom) & Martin Mor (Ireland) about the shows in Singapore & the days spent in Vietnam so far. This conversation takes place in the Hotel lobby where there is some tension as the guys discuss their stay.

A special episode of the Alley Oop Podcast with the great Artie Lange. This is an except from an episode  the Artie Lange Uncensored podcast, to subscribe go to www.artiequitter.com 

You know Artie Lange from his days at Mad TV and movies like Beer League and Dirty Work. He became beloved as the sidekick on the Howard Stern show and proved he is one of the funniest guys on the planet. 

Artie and Paul talk comedy, yankees, who may or may not be having sex with Lebron's Mom, a Bob Uecker story that will make you laugh til you cry, and what a Liam Neeson and Artie Lange movie would sound like. 

Paul talks with childhood hoops buddy, Nate O'Neil on this episode of the Alley Oop Podcast.  After a successful college career at Colgate University, Nate went on to play professional basketball for the Washington Generals (I.E. the team that loses to the Harlem Globetrotters) They talk about how he ended up there, and also about how close Paul was to becoming a Washington General at one point.  

Nate talks about traveling the world, tells some great stories about playing against legendary players like Daryl Dawkins in arenas like Madison Square Garden.

Don't let this losing record fool you, Nate is still Colgate's all-time leading 3 point shooter (%) and is in the top five all time in the Patriot League athletic conference. He still dunked on his birthday this year. 

Nate and Paul also reminisce growing up playing hoops in the Binghamton area and the notable players and playground games. 

An actual full-on sports episode, we get some great basketball insight with LA Clippers beat reporter, Dan Woike, of the Orange Country Register. Dan and Paul become friends on the set of a the Nike Chris Paul Commercials last summer where they were both actors playing reporters. The two love talking hoops and Dan talks about day-to-day life and travel as an NBA beat reporter. He also gives some great insight about the Donald Sterling situation and just how much it affected the team and their playoff run last season.  How will the Clippers do this year? Listen and find out. 

It's about 3am in New York City a few nights before Paul makes his debut on "The Late Show with David Letterman." After running a few sets, Paul meets up with Ari Shaffir at The Stand Comedy Club, and they walk around the East Village eating pizza and cookies.   Now back at Ari's apartment the two discuss Ari's recent tour of China, his TV show on Comedy Central and 1 hour TV special.  Paul also talks about the process of getting bumped and his return trip to NYC to be on the David Letterman Show. Things are going great for them both but talking about  that wouldn't be a fun podcast.  Ari complains about Verizon, and they both complain about how hard it was to get to where they are in comedy.  In the words of Joe Walsh,"I can't complain but sometimes I still do." No sports talk this episode, sorry.

The Alley Oop podcast returns with a great episode with comedian, author, former Fox Studio Executive and 12 Moth Storyslam winner Carlos Kotkin.  Comedian Paul Morrissey and Carlos are old friends from standup comedy and have performed with each other many times over the years and produced a show together called "Funny Writers Reading Stories."      Paul discusses his recent work on a sitcom pilot and also announces that he'll be appearing on the David Letterman show on July 10th. 

This inteview is from several months back, and Carlos mentions shyly that he's working on an animated feature script which we now can disclose that it is the blockbuster sequel "Rio 2."  Paul & Carlos also discuss how to get a book deal and develop it into a TV show.  Carlos also discusses how he develped his penpal relationship David Sedaris.

Carlos wrote a hilarious book about dating called "Please Got Let It Be Herpes," which you can purchase on amazon.com or go to an actually store that sells books. For more information, go to his website www.carloskotkin.com  

After an introduction by Paul from the Montreux Comedy Festival in Switzerland, special guest Stephen Tobolowsky talks about his career in film, TV and his recent writing endeavors including his book "The Dangerous Animals Club."

Dwayne Perkins is a New York born and now Los Angeles based comedian. He makes frequent appearances on Conan, and travels the world spreading his comic views.  Paul and Dwayne perform together often and cross paths outside of comedy at concerts, film festivals and sporting events. Dwayne talks about his competitive nature and philosophy of life with Paul. The two also reminisce about Big East Basketball and discuss the current state of the NBA and its superstars.   Paul & Dwayne will both be perfroming at the Promenade Playhouse on Friday, October 18th on the "Funny Writers Reading Their Stories" show. Dwayne will be reading a selection from his book, "Hot Chocolate For The Mind."

Paul's guest this week is Emmy-Award winning writer, comedian, Executive Producer and Showrunner Mike Royce.   A fellow upstate, New York native, Royce grew up near Syracuse and attended Ithaca College before heading to NYC to pursue comedy as a career.   Mike gives a lot of background on the New York City comedy scene post-boom when he was the house MC at the Comedy Cellar performing with a lot of his comedian buddies like Dave Attell, Todd Barry, Louis CK.  Mike then went on to a job as an audience warmup comedian on Spin City before teaming up with Ray Romano on Saturday Night Live and coming up with one of the great catchphrases of all-time "Sweet Sassy Molassy" during the hilarious SNL Sportscenter Spoof. 

Mike then moved to Los Angeles when he was offered a writing job on Everybody Loves Raymond, and went on to win two Emmy Awards, before being hired as the showrunner for Louis CK's HBO Sitcom "Lucky Louie." From there he went on to be the showrunner on "Men Of A Certain Age" starring Ray Romano, 1600 Penn, and has a new show called "Enlisted" that begins in November on Fox.   

The two talk about the transition from standup to TV writing and producing as well as getting into some sports talk, as Mike is a big hockey fan- NY Rangers and now LA Kings. 

Our guest this week is Josh Thompson, who is the mastermind behind the robot sidekick Geoff Peterson on "The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson" on CBS.  He was also the voice of Arnold Schwartzeneggar on the Howard Stern Show when MSNBC and George Takei were both tricked into thinking he was really the former Governor of California. Paul Morrissey and Josh first met when they were performing together at a storytelling show at The Improv in Hollywood.  Paul asks Josh about his upbringing in Cleveland and the influence of the Muppet Show on his career.  He also talks about turning a one day gig as the robot into a full time job on the Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson.  He also talks about his cool experiences on the show, and what it's like getting complimented by some of his idols like Paul Williams, Carol Burnett, Don Rickles, Richard Lewis and Dick Van Dyke.

Josh describes his complicated day to day setup performing as the robot and gives some insight on his comedic style and what he's looking to do in the future with his career. Check out his Pokin Around Podcast on www.jrtvoices.com Josh will also be starring in the upcoming romantic comedy movie "Nowhere Girl."