Steve Cooper talks with comic/actor Jeannette Rizzi. Jeanette has developed the brand, Blindsided. After years of dealing with her best friend's suicide during high school and battling her own depression, she decided to overcome her problem and deal with the affects of suicide and try to help prevent it. She wrote a one woman show, Blindsided which was a humorous and touching look into her life. After the success of that she started her own podcast of the same name where her and her co-hosts, one a comic one a therapist, deal with different problems that people face. She now has embarked on the making the documentary, Blindsided that will take suicide head-on and attempt to help with finding answers and embracing the healing process.

Steve Cooper talks with actor LaMonica Garrett. LaMonica currently can be seen of FX's Sons of Anarchy where he plays deputy sheriff Cane. He may also look familiar from his role in the critical acclaimed Sigourney Weaver series Political Animals, has been seen on CBS's Mike & Molly, had a recurring part in BET's The Game and guest starred on Arrested Development. Some of his other credits include Suits, NCIS: Los Angeles, CSI: Miami, NCIS, Dark Blue and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. He also has been in numerous national commercials and was one of the stars of the full-contact basketball league Slam Ball.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Spencer Garrett. Spencer got introduced to the entertainment field at a young age, his mother was an actress and his father was a talent agent. After college he gravitated towards the industry and studied with the legendary teacher Sanford Meisner. Throughout his 25 year career he has consistently worked on many different projects. His various TV credits include Franklin & Bash, Masters of Sex, Star Trek: Voyager, Judging Amy, The Practice, The X-Files, Carnivale, JAG, Law & Order, Cold Case, Luck, Mad Men, Major Crimes and Satisfaction. He is also a familiar face on the big screen appearing is such movies as Yes Man, Mississippi is Burning, Charlie Wilson's War, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Thank You For Smoking and Public Enemies.

Carter. Deana is the daughter of legendary Nashville studio guitarist Fred

Carter Jr. After college graduation she worked in a few hospitals deciding to

pursue a musical career at the age of 23. For several years she worked odd jobs

as she continued to develop her songwriting skills and sing at Nashville

nightclubs. Eventually one of her demo tapes made its way to Willie Nelson

while another wound up in the offices of Capitol Nashville. Nelson, who

remembered her from childhood, was impressed with her songs and asked her to

perform at Farm Aid VII in 1994 where she was the only female on the bill.

Within a year, Capitol Nashville had signed her to a contract. Boasting six

songs she co-wrote, her debut album, Did I Shave My Legs For This? was released

to strong reviews in late summer of 1996. By the end of the year the record had

climbed to the upper reaches of the country charts and had made inroads to the

pop charts going gold in the process. Everything's Gonna Be Alright followed in

late 1998. In 2001, she realized her dream of performing with her father on the

holiday album Father Christmas. I'm Just a Girl, a recording that leans

strongly towards pop was released on Artista Nashville in 2003. The Story of my

Life followed in 2005 on Vanguard and a second Vanguard release, The Chain came

out in 2007. She then concentrated on songwriting after a series of life events

kept her away from recording. She signed a deal with Warner Chappell and began

returning to Nashville regularly. She and Matraca Berg had co-written You and

Tequila and when the Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter version was released in

2011, the single hit the Top Five on the country charts and sold over a million

digital copies. Since she was writing full-time anyway, she decided to record

as well. She formed her own label, Little Nugget Records and released Southern

Way of Life this year.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Shi Ne Nielson. Shi Ne is an up and coming actress that's been in a string of popular television shows including: Grey's Anatomy, Parenthood, CSI: NY, The Young & the Restless and has appeared in numerous national commercials for companies such as Lexus, Radio Shack, Farmer's Insurance and AT&T to name a few. She also is a recurring character on ABC Family's new hit drama Chasing Life. She portrays Raquel Avila, the hard-nosed political editor of the Boston Post and the heroine's ruthless rival. A graduate from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Shi Ne continues to study improv and acting throughout Los Angeles and is one of the stars of the popular web-series The Devil Interviews.    

Steve Cooper talks with writer/actor Paul Greenberg. Paul got his acting start by being a part of the Canadian sketch group The Vacant Lot. Since then he has appeared on various shows including as The Jenny McCarthy Show, Random Play, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Reno 911 and Curb Your Enthusiasm. He has also done voices for the cartoons Invader Zim, The Ant Bully and The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius to name few. He is an Emmy winning writer and has worked on many series and award shows such as Jackass, Blue Collar TV, Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Lady Gaga & The Muppets' Holiday Spectacular, The Primetime Emmy Awards, The Annual People's Choice Awards, The MTV Movie Awards and The Annual Tony Awards. He currently co-stars with David Higgins in the series International Ghost Investigators: Hollywood Division.

Steve Cooper talks with comic Darren Carter. Darren is a CooperTalk favorite and is making his 4th appearance on the show. When he takes the stage he takes the audience with him. A whirlpool of impressions and observations with on-point improvisation keeps the crowd rolling through the night and on through the morning if they are lucky. From The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to Be Cool with John Travolta to Comedy Central, BET and Showtime, the aptly named Party Starter and sometimes even Rooster gets recognized on the daily by his many adoring fans.

Steve Cooper talks with comic Yakov Smirnoff. Yakov has been a mainstay in the entertainment scene since the late 1970's and was a

regular guest star on the award winning NBC sitcom, Night Court. He has been a

popular guest of numerous national TV shows including the Tonight Show. You've

seen him on HBO and enjoyed his humor on his critically acclaimed Showtime

special. He has also co-starred in movies with Robin Williams in Moscow on

the Hudson, Tom Hanks in The Money Pit, Meryl Steep and Jack Nicholson in Heartburn and Richard Pryor in Brewster's Millions. He was invited to perform at the

White House for several presidents and honored guests. President Ronald Reagan

called him a "national treasure." Since 1992 he has performed at his own theater in Branson, Missouri,

where he has entertained over four million visitors and produced several

outstanding award-winning shows. In his newest endeavor, "The Happily Ever Laughter Tour", he takes his

comedy to a new level to showcase laughter's effects on relationships and

envisions a world where sadness and tears are replaced with love and laughter and his funny philosophies can also be heard at Missouri State University and Drury

University where he is a professor who teaches about the relationship of

love and laughter.

Steve Cooper talks with drummer Johnny "Vatos" Hernandez. Johnny professional drumming career began at age seventeen with a USO tour to South Vietnam. At nineteen, he was playing in local big bands, the LACC Studio Jazz Band and the Si Zenter Big Band. During the same time, Hernandez played in a variety of pit orchestras and backing acts, like Bob Hope, Billy Daniels and Gordon McCray. In the 1970s, he played with The Helen Reddy Band and served as the house drummer of "The Midnight Special" television show. There, he played with acts, such as Frankie Avalon, Petula Clark, Keith Carradine and Martin Mull. After having been heard, drumming with Toni Basil's band by composer, Danny Elfman and his longtime orchestrator, Steve Bartek, Hernandez was hired as a session drummer on Elfman's first film score, "The Forbidden Zone" (which continues to have a worldwide cult following). Hernandez joined the original lineup of the famous band, Oingo Boingo, a position he held for seventeen years, until their breakup in 1995. During that time, the band released eight albums, toured the world and played thousands of concerts. After the breakup of Oingo Boingo, Hernandez joined the band, Tito and Tarantula and was featured in the Robert Rodriguez film, From Dusk Till Dawn. For the past seven years, Hernandez has been touring with his own, Boingo Dance Party, a high energy, wild Oingo Boingo music show that features former members of Oingo Boingo.

Steve Cooper talks with comic Mario Joyner. Mario is best known as the host of MTV's Half Hour Comedy Hour from 1988-1992 and has done numerous stand-up appearances on TV shows including Late Night with David Letterman. He is a longtime friend and collaborator of comedians Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld. He appeared regularly on The Chris Rock Show and Everybody Hates Chris. He also guest starred in the Seinfeld episodes The Engagement and The Puerto Rican Day, playing two different characters, and voiced the character Jackson in the film Bee Movie. He has opened on national tours for Chris Rock (during his No Apologies tour) and for Jerry Seinfeld. He made his film debut in 1989 in Three Men and a Baby, and later starred in Hangin' with the Homeboys and Pootie Tang. During the October 12, 2010, episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, in an interview with Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Stewart credited Joyner with the joke: "Sort of in the way that murderers get sometimes, like, I found Jesus and I'm OK now." "Well, when did you find Jesus?" "Right after you found me." He currently is working on the web series Digital Dan which he wrote, directed and co-stars in.