To learn more about Butterflies of Wisdom visit http://butterfliesofwisdom.weebly.com/ Be sure to FOLLOW this program https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wins-women-of-wisdom/id1060801905. To find out how Win walk and about Ekso go to http://www.bridgingbionics.org/, or email Amanda Boxtel at [email protected].

 

On Butterflies of Wisdom today, Best-Selling Author, Win Kelly Charles and Juan Carlos Gill welcomes Kevin Allison. Kevin, creator, and the host of RISK!, started his comedy career on the legendary sketch series The State on MTV. But in 2009, everything changed. “I was doing a solo show out West, playing characters as usual,” he says. “Afterward, Michael Ian Black [also of The State] said, ‘I kept hoping you’d drop the act and tell some of your own stories.’ I said, ‘Yikes, that just seems so risky…’ But even as I said it, I could feel in my gut that that kind of risk could lead to the best stuff.” The very next week, Kevin was on stage telling his stories. “Suddenly, I was looking right into the eyes of audience members. We were reacting to each other, like friends. After the show, people didn’t just say, ‘That was funny,’ they said, ‘Thank you. That got to me.’ I was finding the meaning in my own experiences and the people listening felt like they’d lived through these things with me. The more I worried I was taking a risk with a story – because it was too emotional, too provocative, or just too nuts – the more the audience lit up.” In August of 2009, host Kevin and producer Michelle Walson started the live show RISK! “where people tell true stories they never thought they’d dare to share in public” at Arlene’s Grocery on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It was an instant hit. Stories ran the gamut from the sacred to the profane, the hilarious to the horrific – and for the audience, it was a chance to re-connect with the things that make us human. It’s still just about the most cathartic, laugh-out-loud, anything-goes kind of smorgasbord you’re likely to see anywhere. The monthly RISK! Live show, winner of an ECNY Award for Best Variety Show, now lives at The Bell House Theater in Brooklyn and the Nerdmelt Theater in LA. RISK! also tours to sold-out international crowds. Many remarkable people have shown a side of themselves on RISK! that you probably haven’t seen elsewhere, like Michael Ian Black, Janeane Garofalo, R. Ben Garant, Lisa Lampanelli, Kevin Nealon, Margaret Cho, Marc Maron, Sarah Silverman, Michael Showalter, Maria Bamford, Nick Swardson, Lili Taylor, Adam McKay, Rachel Dratch, Andy Borowitz, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Joe LoTruglio, and more. The audio podcast of RISK! – also hosted by Kevin Allison – premiered online in October of 2009. The podcast includes not just the best stories from the live shows but also “radio-style” stories and interstitial music and comedy from artists all over the world. Most episodes of the show are free and easy to download from iTunes and other sources. With new episodes released each Monday, the RISK! The podcast is the winner of an ECNY Award for Best Podcast and has been downloaded tens of millions of times to date. In 2010, Chris Castiglione and Jeff Barr joined RISK! As producers (and co-founders). With the new team in place, the RISK! Podcast grew from being a bi-monthly release to a regularly occurring weekly podcast. Meanwhile, the RISK! Live show went bi-coastal with live performances in Hollywood at the NerdMelt Theater (hosted by Beowulf Jones). In 2011, Kevin and Chris created The Story Studio, at www.thestorystudio.org, a school dedicated to teaching people from all walks of life to turn thei

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