This week's episode of Beginnings is an oldie (as in a month and half old) but a goodie (as in the guests were super-fun). Earlier in the summer, I was invited to host a live Beginnings down in Austin, Texas right before Labor Day weekend as part of the Out of Bounds comedy festival. While the venue - the corner of a coffeeshop - was perhaps not the best place to record a podcast, we had some amazing guests that brought their A-game. Along with my lovely fiancee, stand-up Naomi Ekperigin, I was joined by film directors Todd Rohal (The Catechism Cataclysm, Nature Calls) and Andrew Bujalski (Funny Ha Ha, Computer Chess) and stand-up Joe DeRosa (Return of the Son of Depression Auction, Opie and Anthony), and we had a wide-ranging discussion about angry childhood experiences, the best start to a fight ever, Prince, telepathic spiders, high school rap dreams, horrifying tales of summer camp, and Little Caesars. And in the second half of the show, I talk to improviser and actor Dan Fox about bullying and being bullied at school. Thanks for listening!Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, and follow me on Twitter!

On today's show, I talk to actor Rich Sommer. Well known for the role of Harry Crane on AMC's Mad Men, Rich got his start acting in Minnesota in high school and college, and he continued his education, earning his MFA in acting from Case Western. Besides Mad Men, Rich is known for his role as Anne Hathaway's pal in The Devil Wears Prada, as well as for roles on The Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm.Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, and follow me on Twitter!

On today's show we talk to actor Maria Thayer. Originally from Oregon and then Minnesota, Maria's first major role was as Tammi Littlenut, Jerri Blank's best friend, on the incredible show Strangers With Candy. Since then, she's been in awesome project after awesome project including Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Arrested Development, and lately she's been co-starring in Chris Elliott's amazing Adult Swim show Eagleheart.In mid-August, Maria stopped by my Harlem studio to talk about childhood crushes, god as a terrorist, logic and meaning, synchronicity and complexity, her evangelical mother and libertine father, guns and pornography, social possibilities, and the chance that I may have discouraged a number of students from pursuing their dreams. And in "Andy's Learnin' Corner", I talk with my friend Ellena Chmielewski about crystals and energy - super fascinating!Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, and follow me on Twitter!

On today's show we talk to musician Darwin Smith. Originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Darwin moved to New York after attending Wesleyan for a short time and began playing in indie rock bands like The Creaky Boards and eventually his own group Darwin Deez. Their first self-titled album made a big splash in 2010, and they're second album Songs for Imaginative People came out earlier this year. It's pretty darn sweet.Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes and see some live dates: the next live episode will be October 1st at UCB East with Eugene Mirman (Bob's Burgers), Guy Branum (Totally Biased), musical guest Travis Morrison of The Dismemberment Plan, and guest co-host Elliot Kalan of The Daily Show and the Flop House Podcast!

On today's show, I talk to comics writer Fred Van Lente. Originally on the path to be a professor, Fred sold his first comic script about a decade ago and moved to New York City. Since then, he's written on a number of fantastic titles including Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Zombies, Incredible Hercules, and most recently, the incredibly funny Archer and Armstrong relaunch for Valiant.Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes and see some live dates: the next live episode will be October 1st at UCB East with musical guest Travis Morrison of The Dismemberment Plan, guest co-host Elliot Kalan of The Daily Show and the Flop House Podcast and more!

On today's special episode of Beginnings, I moderate a discussion with J.J. Sedelmaier live from the UCB East Theatre on the nuts and bolts of being a professional animator and on running your own studio. J.J. was the animator for the first season of Beavis and Butthead, the co-creator of the SNL cartoons with Robert Smigel, and he's worked with Adult Swim, The Daily Show, Colbert and a host of most creative people of the last two decades.

To see the reel of cartoons that we showed during the first 20 minutes of "From The Berenstain Bears to Snoop Lion - An Evening with J.J. Sedelmaier", look for the post on beginningspod.com right below the one for this.Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes and see some live dates: the next live episode will be September 3rd for the Beginnings "Writers Panel" featuring Jackson Publick (The Venture Bros.), Annie Mebane (Community, The Michael J. Fox), J.R. Havlan (The Daily Show), and guest co-host Opus Moreschi (head writer of Colbert Report) and more!

On today's show we talk to musician Eleanor Friedberger. Originally from Oak Park, Illinois, Eleanor formed the popular indie rock group The Fiery Furnaces with her brother Matthew in Brooklyn, and from 2000 to 2011, they wrote and released eight albums. Now on hiatus from the band, Eleanor has released two albums on Merge Records, and her latest, Personal Record just came out in June.Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes and see some live dates: on Aug. 31st we'll be live at the Out of Bounds Festival in Austin with Edie McClurg of Ferris Bueller fame, director Todd Rohal, stand-up Joe Derosa and (maybe) more, and the next live episode will be September 3rd for the Beginnings "Writer's Panel" featuring Jackson Publick (The Venture Bros.), Annie Mebane (Community, The Michael J. Fox), J.R. Havlan (The Daily Show), and guest co-host Opus Moreschi (head writer of Colbert Report) and more!

It's time for a "juggernaut of melancholy" with the most horrific episode of Beginnings yet! Three minutes into this baby, I creep myself out, and the shame train kept right on going as my fantastic guests stand-ups Bonnie McFarlane and Max Silvestri, The Colbert Report's Eric Drysdale, Todd Goldstein of ARMS and guest co-host Mike Pace told tales of inappropriate adult/teen relations, and (maybe less creepily?) what it's like to grow up on a farm, Usenet Star Wars fans fanfic, the most criminally negligent camp counselors in history, Lobot's International House of Funk, building a museum in your house, a Don Rickles puppet, high school mail order bride screenplays, and a long conversation about audio tape brands.Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes and see some live dates: on Aug. 31st we'll be live at the Out of Bounds Festival in Austin with director Todd Rohal, Ramesh Srivastava  of Voxtrot and more, and the next live episode will be September 3rd for the Beginnings "Writer's Panel" featuring Jackson Publick (The Venture Bros.), Annie Mebane (Community, The Michael J. Fox), J.R. Havlan (The Daily Show), and guest co-host Opus Moreschi (head writer of Colbert Report) and more!

Today marks the first episode of the newish format focusing more on my guests' childhoods, and I couldn't have asked for a better guest, the wonderful musician and writer Larry Livermore. Originally from Detroit, Larry began to get involved with the San Francisco punk scene in the late 1970s. After playing in a number of bands, he co-founded Lookout! Records in 1987 which was the home of numerous bands including Green Day, Op Ivy and Rancid. Larry's also written for Maximum Rocknroll, Punk Planet, and most recently Don Giovanni Records published his memoirs Spy Rock Memories.A few weeks ago, Larry stopped by my Harlem studio and we got in deep about childhood enemies, learning not to be a smart aleck, stories from WWII and The Depression, autos as status symbols, working class consciousness and being on the run from the FBI in late '60s NYC. Plus, in the epilogue, I learn about current day warzone-ish Detroit from my fiancee, stand-up Naomi Ekperigin.A big thanks, btw, to Matt Cohen and Eric Silver for their thoughts on how to further develop the show!Check out our new website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes and see some live dates: on Aug. 31st we'll be live at the Out of Bounds Festival in Austin with director Todd Rohal, Ramesh Srivastava  of Voxtrot and more, and the next live episode will be September 3rd for the Beginnings "Writer's Panel" featuring Annie Mebane (Community, The Michael J. Fox), guest co-host Opus Moreschi (head writer of Colbert Report) and more!