CooperTalk

Steve Cooper talks with actor Scott MacDonald. Scott is a veteran character actor with an extensive and eclectic list of credits in film, television, commercials, voice overs and on the legit stages of regional theaters across the U.S. and on Broadway. He has voiced or appeared in hundreds of national commercials and CD ROM games. He is one of a rare cadre of actors who have guest starred on all four of the modern Star Trek series as no less than 6 different creatures. He has performed Hamlet and Bullwinkle Moose on the boards, and even had a 7 year run as the lovely "Hilda" while wearing a dress in the long running Bud Light Ladies campaign which included thousands of personal appearances. Some of his movie and TV credits include a recurring role in Carnivale and guest-starring roles in Jarhead, Law & Order, Frasier, Jack Frost, Chicago Hope, The X-Files, The Practice, CSI, The West Wing, NCIS, Monk, JAG, Major Crimes, Mob City, Scorpion and many more.

Steve Cooper talks with actor/director/writer Michael McDonald. Michael got his start training with the Groundlings started working in television, landing guest spots on Seinfeld, Ellen, Just Shoot Me and News Radio before landing on MAD TV in 1998. During his ten-year run, he created several weird characters - most notably man-child Stuart Larkin, Marvin Tikkvah Rusty Miller, and The Depressed Persian Tow Truck Man. In 2007, he left MAD TV and went on to guest star on more television shows, including Scrubs, Desperate Housewives and Pushing Daisies and had recurring roles on House of Lies and Web Therapy and has been seen on the big screen in the hits The Heat with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy and Spy starring the latter. When not acting he directs TV working on sitcoms as including Scrubs, Cougar Town, Don't Trust the B in Apt 23, Save Me, Men at Work, Enlisted, Benched, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Mike & Molly. He also tours the country when he has free time to headline comedy clubs.

Steve Cooper talks with actor/comic Kent Kasper. Kent was a New York City Assistant District Attorney in 1985 and then spent 14 years touring as a National Headline Stand-Up Comedian and making various TV appearances before coming to Hollywood to pursue a career in acting. Since then he has been a very busy actor who is constantly working. He made numerous appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and has been seen on Jimmy Kimmel Live! He has also guest starred on many popular series including Mad Men, Monk, Roswell and Rules of Engagement to name a few and has had roles in many movies including Husbands and Wives, City Slickers II: The Legend Curly's Gold, Apollo 13, Space Jam, Reno 911!: Miami and Rush Hour 3. He was Dr. Phil's Celebrity Lookalike on his television show for 5 seasons and has been featured in countless reality shows like Barter Kings, Tattoo Nightmares, Prank My Mom, Unusual Suspects, Reality Hell, 1000 Ways to Die and The Next Best Thing: Who is the Greatest Celebrity Impersonator. Despite his busy schedule he also teaches acting and gives seminars about the Biz part of Show Business.

Steve Cooper talks with drummer Brian Tichy. Brian is best known for playing with Whitesnake, Foreigner, Ozzy Osbourne and Billy Idol. A graduate of Berklee College of Music he has also played with Seether, Velvet Revolver, Pride & Glory, Slash's Snakepit and many others. While he has primarily toured and recorded with others playing drums, he has fronted his own band, Ball, in which he sings and plays guitar. His writing partnership with Billy Idol sparked the recording of Billy Idol's first CD since 1993. Devil's Playground was recorded in 2004 and contained 8 Idol/Tichy tracks. The CD was released in March 2005 and they toured for the remainder of the year. Besides being big in the drum world he is very popular in the speed bag world. During the 2009–10 tour with Foreigner, he hung several speed bag wall units inside the bands equipment truck and created the infamous Speed Bag Truck, hosting area speed bag enthusiasts from various areas when the band played in their town. Some of the best speed bag talent in the U.S. joined him in the truck before concerts, punching away.

Steve Cooper talks with actor/writer/singer/producer Julie Brown. Julie’s outrageous talent brought her to the stand-up comedy scene in LA and San Francisco in the 80s, where she quickly grabbed the attention of the gay community. Discovered by comedy legend Lily Tomlin, her life changed forever when Tomlin cast her in The Incredible Shrinking Woman. After writing and starring in Earth Girls Are Easy with Jim Carrey & Geena Davis, she skyrocketed into the national spotlight. Some of her other commended movie roles include Attack of the 5’2” Women, Plump Fiction, Like Mike, Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment and Clueless. With things moving at full steam, she jumped back and forth from movies to TV, capturing roles on hit shows like Laverne & Shirley, Murphy Brown, Quantum Leap, Buffalo Bill, and The Jeffersons. Recently, she flaunted her amazing talent on fan favorites CSI, Six Feet Under, and The Wizards of Waverly Place. She hosted her own comedy show Just Say Julie on MTV for several seasons. This led to her star turn on The Edge on Fox, and Strip Mall on Comedy Central-shows she also helped create. When the film Clueless was spun off as an ABC sitcom in 1996, she reprised her role as Millie, the gritty, hilarious gym coach. Undeniably talented, she has made a huge impact as a musical artist. After the release of her first album Goddess In Progress, her style and sound grabbed the attention of the international crowd, and caught fire all across the globe. Her singles, Girl Fight Tonight, The Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun and I Like ‘Em Big And Stupid were instant hits and received heavy airplay throughout the country.

Steve Cooper talks with bassist Juan Alderete. Juan met renowned guitarist Paul Gilbert in 1985 and the two started the ground-breaking metal outfit, Racer X. The band released two studio albums, both of which showcased the band’s incredible speed, dexterity and skill in what many have dubbed “shred metal.”  After releasing couple of live records,  the members of Racer X went their separate ways in 1988, but reformed eleven years later, recording Technical Difficulties and touring throughout Japan where the album reached gold status. Post-Racer X,he formed another Los-Angeles-based rock band, The Scream, which produced two albums then moved onto Pet. In 2003, he was approached in 2003 by Omar Rodriguez Lopez of The Mars Volta to be the touring basist for the run of the band’s debut album, De-Loused in the Comatorium.  After a successful, year-long tour, he became a permanent member of the group and went on to record The Mars Volta’s landmark second album, Frances the Mute (Universal).  It was this album that inspired Bass Player Magazine’s editors to put him on the cover of their March, 2005 issue. In addition to his work with The Mars Volta, he frequently contributed to Rodriguez Lopez’s countless solo releases and toured extensively with the Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Jim Turner. Jim is probably best known as ex-football-star-turned-agent Kirby Carlisle on the HBO comedy, ARLI$$ and as the perpetually out-of-sorts hippy, Randee of the Redwoods, that MTV ran for President in 1988. Turner has carved out his television career of playing lots of small town doctors, lawyers, preachers, and teachers on Grey's Anatomy, Perception, Franklin & Bash, Happy Endings, Castle, Big Bang Theory, Young & the Restless, Boston Legal, Dharma & Greg, Party Down and many others. He's also had major roles in several movie comedies: Kicking & Sceaming, Bewitched, Meet Dave, JOBS, The Ref, Joe's Apartment, Golf in the Kingdom and dozens more.  He can currently be seen on the series Granite Flats where you can find on Netflix.

Steve Cooper talks with entrepreneur/restaurateur/actor/musician Tony Luke Jr. Tony opened a sandwich shop in South Philadelphia in 1990 and Tony Luke's has turned into an international brand with 22 stores currently open in Bahrain, the Mid-Atlantic region and Florida. Tony Luke's has twice been hailed by Gourmet Magazine for quality and innovation, renowned by GQ Magazine, The New York Times and is a member of Philly Mag's Hall of Fame. The sandwich shop is featured on episodes of Throwdown! with Bobby Flay, Dinner: Impossible, Man v. Food and Food Wars. Tony a man of many hats has appeared in many feature films including Invincible, 10th & Wolf and The Nail: The Story of Joey Nardone, which he co-wrote and co-produced. He also has written and produced songs for Billy Paul, A&M Records and even topped the CD Baby charts with his song, Right Here and was a series judge on SpikeTV's first culinary based reality show, Frankenfood.

Steve Cooper talks with host/comic Frank Nicotero. Frank started his stand-up comedy career in Pittsburgh. His career eventually moved him to LA where an appearance on Lifetime TV’s game show DEBT hosted by the legendary Wink Martindale won him over $14,000. He ended up writing and producing various game shows and got his big break when he was asked to help write and produce a pilot called Street Smarts and then hosted the gig for over 5 years. After the show ended he dove back into standup with appearances on Comics Unleashed, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, The Wayne Brady Show and numerous other cable shows.  He was the narrator for two seasons of TruTv’s It Only Hurts When I Laugh and in 2014 was a cast member on TruTv’s newest hit How To Be A Grown Up. He proudly made his network standup debut on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson in November 2014 and his debut album, That Street Smarts Guy, can be purchased on all major streaming sites. He recently got done shooting the CMT show Pontoon Payday where he serves as the host.

Steve Cooper talks with drummer Jason Sutter. Jason has recorded, performed and toured with such artists as: The Rembrandts, Kenny Babyface Edmonds, Pink, The Campfire Girls, Joe Walsh, Butch Walker, Our Lady Peace, Dean and Robert DeLeo (Stone Temple Pilots) as well as many others. He has also made numerous television and feature film appearances Including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The late show with David Letterman. In 2001 he was cast in Stanley Kubricks AI directed by Steven Spielberg and in 2005 completed an extensive UK, US and Japanese tour with his band American Hi-Fi. In 2006 he helped develop and was an original cast member/musician for the hit broadway musical Rock Of Ages and in the same year went on to record and play with multi platinum artists Smashmouth. Following three years of international touring and recording with Soundgarden front-man Chris Cornell, he recorded and toured with Vertical Horizon. In 2010 he completed the "Cant Slow Down" world tour with American rock legends Foreigner and immediately began touring with punk rock icons the New York Dolls. After two successful tours with Dolls in the US and UK, he was enlisted by shock rocker Marilyn Manson during the recording of his Grammy nominated "Born Villain" album and spent the next two years touring internationally for Manson's "Hey Cruel World" tour. He currently is touring with Smashmouth.