Yow! We got a hot one for you this week. Due to a scheduling snafu, our monthly live episode at UCB East had to be pre-empted, so instead, we decided to put on one in Andy’s apartment with some of our favorite people: Ethan Berlin, co-creator of Bunk and writer on Billy on the Street and the new Best Week Ever, as well as neo-folk group Prairie Empire, who played two amazing tunes, and has a record out on Trailer Fire Records. It was a super fun time, and we even debut a BRAND NEW SEGMENT: From the Drawer!Subscribe on iTunes and come see Beginnings: Live at UCB East on 12/4 at 8pm. Featuring MST3K’s Frank Conniff, author of How to Be Black Baratunde Thurston and and hip-hop superstar Jean Grae!

On today's show, we talk to LA-based comedian Jerrod Carmichael. Jerrod started stand-up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina when he was 20, and through a great deal of hard-work has quickly become a notable stand-up, landing on Variety's Top 10 Comics to Watch list in 2011. While continuing to perform at places like Meltdown and the Laugh Factory, he's also branched out into TV, having contributed to Odd Future's Adult Swim show and landing a supporting role on the Fox sitcom The Goodwin Games.Last week, at the tail-end of the New York Comedy Festival, Jerrod stopped by the Manhattan Wrestling Team apartment for a late-night Beginnings episode; we talked about being conscious and present in the moment, cats, car services, and Jerrod gives us one of the best answers ever for Dream Project!

Subscribe on iTunes and come see Beginnings: Live at UCB East on 12/4 at 8pm. Featuring MST3K’s Frank Conniff, author of How to Be Black Baratunde Thurston and and hip-hop superstar Jean Grae!

On today's show we talk to Jessie Stein of the Montreal-based multi-instrumental indie rock band The Luyas. Previously in the band SS Cardiacs, Jessie began playing music as a teenager, and formed the Luyas in 2006 with a number of other Canadian musicians. Since then, the band has released three albums, Faker Death, Too Beautiful to Work and their latest Animator, which was just released in October.

A few weeks ago, The Luyas were in town in the direct aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. After they performed at the Cake Shop, we met for a quick interview nearby in a Lower East Side coffeeshop and talked about Jessie's Wes Anderson-y past and inspiration-based vs. workmanlike creativity.

Subscribe on iTunes and come see Beginnings: Live at UCB East on 12/4 at 8pm. Featuring MST3K's Frank Conniff, author of How to Be Black Baratunde Thurston and and hip-hop superstar Jean Grae!

On today's show, we talk to writer Sam Lipsyte. Based in New York City, Sam has written for numerous publications including The New Yorker, Open City, The New York Times Book Review, Esquire and The Paris Review. In 2000, a book of Sam's short stories was published, and since then, he has released three novels - The Subject Steve, Home Land, and The Ask. In 2008, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and Sam's latest novel, The Fun Parts, will be released by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on March 13th of next year.Last week during a snap blizzard, Sam was nice enough to trek over from Columbia to the Manhattan Wrestling Team apartment for an amazing conversation in which he tells us about the delayed gratification of writing and how to recognize when you are bullshitting yourself.Subscribe on iTunes and come see Beginnings: Live at UCB East on 12/4 at 8pm. Featuring MST3K's Frank Conniff and hip-hop superstar Jean Grae (plus more!)!

On today's episode we talk to Gavin Spieller and Geoff Garlock about the concept of game and the way the Upright Citizens Brigade school teaches it. Two of the best improv and sketch teachers at the UCB, Geoff wrote for years on the house sketch teams iBadger, The Skuntz and Slow Burn, and Gavin has been a long-standing member of the improv team Death by Roo Roo, which performs at the theatre every Saturday night.

Subscribe on iTunes and come see Beginnings: Live on December 4th at UCB East!

On today's show, we talk to Greg Barris. Greg is a stand-up, musician and artist based in New York City. For the last eleven years, Greg has been performing and for the last two, he has helmed a bicoastal comedy event called Heart of Darkness, a communal show featuring music, stand-up and more. Recently, he released his first comedy album Shame Wave on AST Records. A few weeks ago, Greg came over to the Manhattan Wrestling Team apartment for an amazing talk about consensual creepiness, experimenting with your life, and transitional periods. This is one for the ages, friends!

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On today's show, we talk to Ben Blacker and Ben Acker of The Thrilling Adventure Hour, a podcast and staged show in the style of old time radio that frequently stars comedians and actors like Paul F. Tompkins, Paget Brewster and James Urbaniak. Acker and Blacker are also TV writers and have written for shows like the WB's Supernatural and networks like Fox, Nickelodeon and USA. They also work in comics and recently wrote a Wolverine graphic novel for Marvel and are working on a Kickstarter campaign for a Thrilling Adventure Hour book. At the beginning of October, the two Bens were in town to do some Thrilling Adventure Hour shows in Brooklyn were nice enough to take the time out of a meeting-filled day to sit down with us at a studio in midtown for an atypical but fun episode!

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On today's show we talk to Geoff Haggerty and Sam West, two of the creators behind The Onion's YouTube webseries Sex House. Before becoming a writer on VH1's Big Morning Buzz Live, Geoff was the Creative Director for Onion Digital Studios and Sam is currently Head Writer. The remaining presence of The Onion in New York, Onion Digital Studios is responsible for producing videos for YouTube, which include a new series of TED-like talks, an incredibly dark food travelogue called Porkin' Across America and of course, one of the best series - web or TV - to come out this year, Sex House, a bleak and hilarious Real World-esque satire. A few weeks ago, Geoff and Sam stopped by the Manhattan Wrestling Team apartment to chat about the origins of the show and spit some Kool Keith lines. It was fun!

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On today's show we talk to Thu Tran. Thu is an artist and entertainer based in New York City. Growing up in Cleveland, she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Glass from the Cleveland Institute of Art. Since then, she's been a frequent collaborator with mash-up musician Girl Talk, and in 2009, she created the show Food Party for IFC, which ran for two seasons. Part cooking show and part puppet show, Food Party was surreal and wonderful. A few weeks ago, Thu stopped by the Manhattan Wrestling Team apartment for a fun and weird chat about creativity and fine art!

Subscribe on iTunes and come see the next Beginnings: Live at UCB East on November 6th at 8pm! We'll have the Beginnings Election Night Spectacular with Ethan Berlin (creator of IFC's Bunk) and more! Fun!™

Yowza! This last Tuesday, on a rainy and cool night, we had some of our favorite comedians and one of our favorite bands sit down with us at UCB East for a delightful chat about the X-Men's Gambit, $10 words, the Lego stock exchange and everybody's favorite Christian rock band Switchfoot. Nate Bargatze (Comedy Central Presents, his new AST album Yelled at by a Clown) and Sara Schaefer (You Had to Be There podcast, the forthcoming The Nikki and Sara Show on MTV) made us laugh and Cymbals Eat Guitars (Barsuk records) played some songs and chatted about home made psychedelic high school videos. It was a fun, weird time! Weird!

Subscribe on iTunes and come see the next Beginnings: Live at UCB East on November 6th at 8pm! Fun!™