Check Your Brain

You've seen Colin Mochrie make cameos on TV shows and commercials, but he is best known for his long tenure on Whose Line is it Anyway?, both the British and American incarnations.

Colin sat down with Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur about his upbringing in Canada and what propelled him to get into Second City. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he and Brad Sherwood were continuing their improv shows via Zoom.

Later in the podcast, Tony briefly talks about his start in standup and what inspired him to try comedy, with Colin Mochrie being one of those inspirations.

Follow Tony on his various social media platforms:

Twitter - @TonyMazur

Instagram - @tmaze25

Cover art for the Check Your Brain podcast is by Eric C. Fischer. If you need terrific graphic design work done, contact Eric at [email protected].

The story of 2020 was indeed COVID-19, but perhaps the story of 2021 may be the result of the lockdowns.

Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur sat down with author Michael Betrus, and they touched on the hysteria surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, from the actual science of face coverings and lockdowns, to the deaths of despair that seem to be ignored by the mainstream media.

You can purchase Michael's book, which is called COVID-19: Lockdowns on Trial: https://www.amazon.com/COVID-19-Lockdowns-Trial-Michael-Betrus/dp/B08CWBDD4L

Follow Tony on his various social media platforms:

Twitter - @TonyMazur

Instagram - @tmaze25

Cover art for the Check Your Brain podcast is by Eric C. Fischer. If you need terrific graphic design work done, contact Eric at [email protected].

Avid newspaper readers have seen Tom Batiuk's work for nearly a half century. He is the creator of the wildly popular and sometimes controversial Funky Winkerbean, and he also created Crankshaft, a spinoff of the former.

Tom and Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur talked about the history of Funky Winkerbean, how it went from a "gag-a-day" strip in the beginning to a narrative-based story arc years later that touched on serious subjects such as cancer, death, suicide, and gay rights. They also pondered who would play characters like Funky, Les Moore, and Ed Crankshaft in live action movies, and about the comics section of today.

Follow Tony on his various social media platforms:

Twitter - @TonyMazur

Instagram - @tmaze25

Cover art for the Check Your Brain podcast is by Eric C. Fischer. If you need terrific graphic design work done, contact Eric at [email protected].

If you're a die-hard baseball fan, you've probably been told that Abner Doubleday started baseball about 155 years ago. According to author Thomas W. Gilbert, not only is that a myth, but he explains the story behind the myth in his book, How Baseball Happened.

Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur chats with Thomas about the beginnings of baseball, what sport it was derived from, the early teams and star players, and how its popularity exploded into the 20th century.

For more information and how to purchase the book, visit: https://howbaseballhappened.com

Follow Tony on his various social media platforms:

Twitter - @TonyMazur

Instagram - @tmaze25

Cover art for the Check Your Brain podcast is by Eric C. Fischer. If you need terrific graphic design work done, contact Eric at [email protected].

Geno Bisconte is a New York City-based comedian and host of the podcasts In Hot Water and subscription-only Gum Fridays.

Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur got so much content out of Geno he needed to split it into two episodes (the second part will be released down the road). Tony and Geno riff about their cats, past relationships, his early days in standup, and coming up with edgier material in this current climate.

In Hot Water is on Monday through Thursday afternoons on CompoundMedia.com, and their Gum Fridays Patreon is available here: https://www.patreon.com/gumfridays

Follow Tony on his various social media platforms:

Twitter - @TonyMazur

Instagram - @tmaze25

Parler - TonyMazur

Cover art for the Check Your Brain podcast is by Eric C. Fischer. If you need terrific graphic design work done, contact Eric at [email protected].

In the days before Twitter and Instagram, fans would have to pen a personal letter to their favorite celebrity, stamp it, send it through the postal service, and MAYBE said celeb has a chance at reading it, AND THEN the opportunity a response will be sent is quite minuscule.

David Fantle and Tom Johnson were so obsessed with the golden age of Hollywood that, as teenagers, they flew all over the country to interview and soak in their favorite actors on the stage and screen. They put those interviews to print in the book Hollywood Heyday: 75 Candid Interviews with Golden Age Legends.

They spoke with Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur on meeting these larger-than-life figures such as Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, and James Cagney, and they compared eras of film and television to today.

Make sure you pick up a copy of Hollywood Heyday: https://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Heyday-Candid-Interviews-Legends/dp/1476668051

Follow Tony on his various social media platforms:

Twitter - @TonyMazur

Instagram - @tmaze25

Cover art for the Check Your Brain podcast is by Eric C. Fischer. If you need terrific graphic design work done, contact Eric at [email protected].

Linkin Park is one of, if not the most successful rock band of the last two decades. But their beginnings weren't so meteoric. All of that trial and error and they never gave up; they just needed someone who saw their potential.

Jeff Blue was the one to give him their first break, and he documented their success with their debut album, Hybrid Theory, in his new book, From Xero to #1: Becoming Linkin Park. He talked to Tony Mazur about their dozens of failed auditions and what it took for them to rise up the rock and pop charts.

Follow Tony on his various social media platforms:

Twitter - @TonyMazur

Instagram - @tmaze25

Cover art for the Check Your Brain podcast is by Eric C. Fischer. If you need terrific graphic design work done, contact Eric at [email protected].

Darryl Strawberry is a multi-time all-star, Rookie of the Year, and four-time World Champion. So after all the accolades, why is his post-career life more fulfilling? The Straw sobered up from the booze and the blow and found the Lord. And for the last two decades, he has become and author and evangelist. His new book is called Turn Your Season Around.

Don Chaney is a long-time NBA player and coach, but since his retirement, he has suffered from what's called Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy. He spoke with Tony Mazur on how he has coped with not only the disease, but how he has managed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Follow Tony on his various social media platforms:

Twitter - @TonyMazur

Instagram - @tmaze25

Cover art for the Check Your Brain podcast is by Eric C. Fischer. If you need terrific graphic design work done, contact Eric at [email protected].

Kevin Brennan is a nationally touring standup comedian and occasional television writer originally from Philadelphia, but is currently based out of the New York City area. He made guest appearances on Spin City and Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update, but he had to massive breaks: an HBO One Night Stand special in 2005, and a 2014 Sirius XM radio appearance that endeared him to a new audience, which helped launch a podcast of his own, Misery Loves Company.

Check Your Brain's Tony Mazur and comedian Chad Zumock chat with Kevin over the phone about his tenure at Compound Media, the importance of putting out consistent content for podcasting, and hack comedians of the past and present.

Misery Loves Company is available as a Patreon-only podcast: https://www.patreon.com/mlcpodcast

Chad Zumock's podcast is called The Sit Down Zumock!, and it is available for free as well as Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SitDownZumock

Follow Tony on his various social media platforms:

Twitter - @TonyMazur

Instagram - @tmaze25

Parler - TonyMazur

Cover art for the Check Your Brain podcast is by Eric C. Fischer. If you need terrific graphic design work done, contact Eric at [email protected].