Max Fine is a stand-up comedian based in New York City.

Instagram and all episodes

(00:00) Atlanta Roots and Moving to New York

(03:05) Falling in Love with Standup as a Teenager

(06:40) The Dirtbag Years: Comedy, Bars, and Blackouts

(10:15) Chasing the Lifestyle Instead of the Craft

(13:50) Health Scares, Mushrooms, and the Last Night Drinking

(17:30) Life Levels Up Fast Without Booze

(20:45) Did Drugs Make the Comedy Better?

(24:10) Detox, AA, and Choosing to Quit Alone

(27:55) Bushwick Hell Apartment and the Creek in the Cave

(31:30) Road Gigs, Delusion, and Watching Others Pass You By

(35:05) Ego, Early Confidence, and Actually Getting Good

(38:40) Honesty on Stage and What Makes Great Comics

(42:00) Comedy as Community and Losing It During COVID

(45:10) Treating Comedy Like a Real Business and Career

(48:30) The Comedy Cellar Audition and Getting Passed

(52:10) Living Up to the Cellar and Constantly Improving

(55:30) Weed, Hot Yoga, and Building Better Habits

(58:45) The Comedian’s Role, Politics, and Redefining Success

Quinn Larrabee is a satirist and Substacker, based in New York City.

Instagram and all episodes

(00:00) Defaulting to New York

(02:00) Early Love of Writing

(04:00) Quiet Kid, Red Hair, and Fiction

(06:15) Discovering Comedy as Expression

(08:10) Substack and the Pandemic Pivot

(10:05) The Play Party Awakening

(12:00) Finding the First Voice

(14:15) From Erotica to Satire

(17:20) The Brooklyn Trope and Floor Parties

(20:00) Writing About Entitlement

(22:40) From King to Jester

(26:00) The Firing That Freed Him

(28:20) How Satire Finds Its Subjects

(31:00) Aiming Up: The Art of Ridicule

(35:15) Outsiders in the Room

(39:20) Doing the Work and Other Essays

(45:30) The Performance of Authenticity

(49:50) Writing, Flow, and Full-Time Risk

(52:30) The Role of the Satirist

(54:50) Losing Empathy in the Modern Age

(56:40) Redefining Success and Not Giving Up

Jason Chatfield is a cartoonist - whose work has appeared in "Mad Magazine" and "The New Yorker" - and a standup comedian, based in New York City.

Instagram and all episodes

(00:00) From Perth to New York

(02:15) Cartooning starts as a hobby

(04:40) Detention and the first paid caricature

(07:10) Discovering late-’90s cartoon career paths

(10:05) Skipping college and the 10,000-hour grind

(13:30) Perth as a craft crucible

(17:00) Quokkas, family, and bus-ride sketching

(20:10) MAD Magazine as a classroom

(23:00) Learning from peers and ACA presidency

(26:30) Taking over a 102-year-old strip

(30:10) Daytime drawing, nighttime comedy in Melbourne

(33:40) Annual U.S. trips and the 2014 move

(37:00) The expanding-map mindset and mentors

(40:20) Australia-famous, funerals, and the leap

(44:10) New York hustle and the strip’s 2023 end

(48:00) Networking, referrals, and the mailing list

(52:00) Substack era: writing, community, livestreams

(55:30) New Yorker vs. MAD in a changing industry

(58:40) New Yorker economics, rights, and royalties

(64:00) Success redefined: enough and true fans

Wayne Tucker is a trumpeter and an adjunct professor at SUNY Purchase, based in New York City.

Instagram and all episodes

(00:00) SUNY Purchase → Moving to NYC

(02:46) Choosing Jazz Trumpet as the Path

(05:29) Early Instruments & Ninth-Grade Pivot

(08:11) Competitiveness Sparks Daily Practice

(10:57) Family Influences & First Jazz Inspirations

(13:40) Trumpet Physicality, Breath, and Power

(16:22) Falling in Love with the Horn

(19:05) First Paid Gigs & Syracuse Pep Band

(24:28) College Lessons & Embouchure Rebuild

(27:17) Finding Community & Career Models at Purchase

(30:01) “Carry Your Horn” Hustle & Mentors

(32:44) Post-Grad: Jams, Sales Pause, Then Ramp

(35:36) Sleep No More Break & Weekly Work

(38:25) Confidence, Work Ethic, and Calling

(41:54) Great Bandmates: Listening & Musical Language

(45:12) Why NYC Wins: Diversity, Teaching, Community

(48:36) Purpose: Kids, School Shows, Daily Routine

(51:44) Feedback at Birdland, Big Goals, Venues & NYC Love

Brittany Cardwell is a stand-up comedian based in New York City.

Instagram and all episodes

(00:00) Intro – Moving from New Zealand to New York for comedy

(03:12) Early comedy beginnings in Dunedin

(05:20) How false memory research became her academic path

(08:40) The rise of “recovered memories” and 1980s therapy culture

(12:25) Experiments creating false childhood memories

(16:05) How imagination and photos distort real memories

(19:20) False confessions and eyewitness bias in the justice system

(23:05) The horse-cue study and unconscious suggestion

(26:40) Personal story of being robbed and memory distortion

(30:10) Anchoring, availability, and why memory feels like truth

(33:15) Leaving academia: the myth of professorial freedom

(37:20) Turning to stand-up and improv after heartbreak

(41:00) Realizing comedy had always been the hidden calling

(45:05) Life in New Zealand’s small comedy scene and first big wins

(48:50) The decision to quit academia and move to New York

(52:40) Adjusting to New York comedy life and financial realities

(56:15) Why she keeps going through rejection and grind

(59:20) What she loves to joke about – stupidity, self-awareness, and truth

(62:15) Performing at Flop House, releasing her first special, and closing reflections

Elise Rise is a visual artist based in Brooklyn, NY.

Instagram and all episodes

(00:00) NYC Longing & Origins

(02:10) Studio at Four

(04:20) Unicorn Hustle to Portraits

(06:25) Parents’ Support & Art History Mom

(08:40) High School Mentor; Liberal Arts vs Art School

(10:55) Choosing Princeton

(13:15) Instinct, Impulse, and Nurture

(15:35) Painting as a Way of Thinking

(18:05) Surviving NYC: Money vs Art

(20:40) Pandemic Pivot to Creative Direction

(23:15) Keeping Craft Separate from Career

(26:05) Ritual over Feast-or-Famine

(29:00) Make Art First: One Hour Daily

(33:10) Flow State, Presence, & Starter Habits

(39:00) 9 a.m. Accountability, Sobriety, Resets

(43:10) “Botany of Bodies”: Creation, AI & Meaning

(47:10) Finding Community, Crit Clubs, Getting a Show

(51:10) Success, Selling, and the Search for Meaning

Tucker Iverson is a comedian based in New York City.

Instagram and all episodes

(00:00) Brutal commute, ad job, and deciding to move

(02:05) College life as a Division I fencing captain

(04:12) First open mics during the two-hour commute

(06:45) Moving to NYC; UCB + Magnet double-dipping

(09:18) Why improv fit: team sport and lower pressure

(12:04) Classes, indie teams, coaches, and community

(14:57) Day job by day, three-hour reps by night

(16:40) Early encouragement and UCB grades build confidence

(19:15) Great improvisers: unique POV and total commitment

(22:08) The “framer” role and balanced team dynamics

(24:31) First break: Asylum house team & performing with pros

(27:44) “Can’t stop doing it”: identity and acting school

(30:26) Money talk: BuzzFeed/TikTok, freelance, NYC costs

(33:18) Time math: 30-hour weeks of acting school

(39:27) Leaving 9-to-5: pebble-in-shoe and secrecy at work

(41:12) Creative peers in advertising; current show cadence (Go Dummy, BCC, UCB)

(45:03) Ben Schwartz model: can improv scale like stand-up?

(50:10) Filming vs live magic; advice to start—and why improv beat stand-up for me

Lark LePage is a musician based in New York City.

Instagram and all episodes

(00:00) Born-and-raised LES; New York as first love

(02:05) Parents’ Montreal–Dublin backstory and 9/11 link to her birth

(04:18) Mom’s “now or never” baby decision after the attacks

(06:22) Fleeing the city; upstate refuge and choosing life in NYC

(08:36) Cab radio moment—realizing it wasn’t an accident

(11:02) Why New York: the dream, noise, and artists everywhere

(13:14) Resilient people, service-job confessions, radical openness

(15:58) Loud kid to vocal nodules; NYC as a soft landing

(18:12) Guitar lessons to songwriting; collaborating with mom

(21:00) COVID pause and rejecting college to pursue music

(23:58) Broken foot & vocal nodes—forced reset and resolve

(27:06) Hour-a-day writing summer; the album takes shape

(29:52) “Mine”: a breakup record with New York in every line

(33:10) Booking shows DIY—email grit and the Red Hook record shop show

(36:05) Open mics, Pete’s Candy Store; venues, networking, and getting paid

(44:10) Making money in music now—build a world, shows, touring goals

(49:05) Audience growth: TikTok without cringe, perform relentlessly

(51:40) NYC vs Nashville, community vibes; defining success as happy, self-sustaining art

Ashley Everhart is a comedian, musician, and actor, based in New York City.

Instagram and all episodes

(00:00) Moving to NYC, COVID eviction, 2020 return

(02:31) Fordham at Lincoln Center; sister’s pull toward theater

(04:58) Teenage UCB obsession—Askat DVD, note-taking pilgrimages

(07:12) Discovering training grounds—“adults doing comedy” clicks

(09:55) Why institutions fit: structure, study, community

(12:18) Ministers at home, musician’s regimen, creativity + tradition

(15:03) “Why comedy?”—mixed motives, first laughs, SNL spark

(18:07) Comedy vs the rubric—feedback, collaboration over isolation

(21:40) Plan A: choral clinician; school bureaucracy disillusions

(25:12) Teaching drama clubs; self-doubt and finding footing

(28:33) Stand-up attempts vs true love: sketch & character

(31:05) Costumes, spectacle, precision; respecting a paying audience

(33:58) What separates performers—team players and teachable character

(37:22) Joy vs nerves; the “little secret,” Tina Benko, Aquamarine mix-up

(40:31) The call from UCB; debuting Will.i.am’s wife, lyric logic

(44:12) Dusty reopening, tepid reception, Bernadette Peters vibe

(47:06) Defining success in two years—funnier, collaborative, joyful

(49:28) Closing banter—family bits, Billie Holiday riff, sign-off

Gylije Veljic is a stand-up comedian and an entrepreneur, based in New York City.

Instagram and all episodes

(00:00) Reluctant move to NYC; advertising + comedy crossroads

(02:05) Staten Island summers, 7 years here, finding real confidence

(04:10) Performer roots: theater, speech & why stand-up challenges

(06:12) “Monetizing me”: startup mindset, many lanes not one

(08:05) Leaving L’Oréal, taking a class, show counts explode

(10:22) Pandemic throwback: Snapchat hump-day raps & early virality

(12:48) Party years in Arizona: DUI, paraphernalia, the police horse

(16:05) Super-extreme blow, probation, 42 days; jail vs. holding cell

(19:58) Turning jail into bits; the hole for “arts & crafts”

(23:15) Three days solitary: creativity, raps, and 90-minute focus

(26:44) Silver linings: fake IDs, hierarchy, and friendship at work

(29:30) First “show” ever: San Diego stories, LA writer’s feedback

(33:05) Gotham, Alex Babbitt, class—first real crush in a 300-seat room

(36:02) Big themes: corporate life, overthinking dating, second-wife logic

(39:28) Child-free stance: purpose myths, mentors’ regrets, honesty

(43:12) Where she plays now: indie rooms, The Stand, new clubs

(47:06) Getting better: delivery, listening, crowd work, Theragun test

(50:22) Less solitude, bigger job; money mindset—then the dream: own club, brunch shows, an hour, auditions, one-woman show