Kinda Sorta Maybe Like a Podcast

Shortly after Donald Trump decided to run for President, improviser and actor Anthony Atamanuik -- a veteran of UCB Theatre in New York who had worked on 30 Rock for years and wrote for and appeared in a number of other comedy television shows and specials -- was asked to do a one-off show as Trump after playing an exaggerated version of then-candidate Trump in an improv scene.

That original live show led to more shows, an eventual "Trump vs. Bernie" debate tour alongside James Adomian as Bernie Sanders, appearances on @midnight and FuseTV as the character, and then after the seemingly unlikely election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States, starring in a Trump-themed talk show on Comedy Central called The President Show.

In advance of a pair of apperances as Donald Trump for this year's JFL42 in Toronto, Paul Little spoke with Atamanuik over the phone about his career before taking on the Trump character, getting into the mind of someone like Trump, his overall take on the state of politics in the United States these days, and a very early teaser about a new President Show special coming up soon.

Greg's podcast, The Smartest Man in the World, is an hour and a half of crowd work and riffing off of the headlines. It's also consistently very funny. It's a style of performer/audience relationship that harkens back to the days of Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, and Joan Rivers; however, the format, subject matter, and approach are all modern. Like Greg himself, it combines the technical proficiency of an older generation, but continues to stay effortlessly relevant.

He's also one of the most apt social critics working in stand-up comedy today. Don't believe us? The amount of issues that get touched on in this less than 15-minute interview with Andrew Lizotte is dense.

His new album is out in October, his book is now out in paperback (The Smartest Book in the World), and he's performing stand-up and recording his podcast at JFL42 this week. Go enjoy him.

Greg's podcast, The Smartest Man in the World, is an hour and a half of crowd work and riffing off of the headlines. It's also consistently very funny. It's a style of performer/audience relationship that harkens back to the days of Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, and Joan Rivers; however, the format, subject matter, and approach are all modern. Like Greg himself, it combines the technical proficiency of an older generation, but continues to stay effortlessly relevant.

He's also one of the most apt social critics working in stand-up comedy today. Don't believe us? The amount of issues that get touched on in this less than 15-minute interview with Andrew Lizotte is dense.

His new album is out in October, his book is now out in paperback (The Smartest Book in the World), and he's performing stand-up and recording his podcast at JFL42 this week. Go enjoy him.

Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld are the writers, actors, and editors behind the award-winning webseries Jake and Amir, which began while the pair were writers at College Humor. In 2013, they started an advice podcast called If I Were You, and over the years, they have done special live recordings of the podcast around the U.S.

Now they're bringing the podcast north of the border to Canada, with live shows in Winnipeg, Calgary, and Vancouver. In advance of these shows, our own Ian Bawa spoke to the comedy duo about the questions they choose to give advice on, where new segments developed from, if their current Vimeo series Lonely and Horny, and what audiences should expect going to a live recording of If I Were You.

Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld are the writers, actors, and editors behind the award-winning webseries Jake and Amir, which began while the pair were writers at College Humor. In 2013, they started an advice podcast called If I Were You, and over the years, they have done special live recordings of the podcast around the U.S.

Now they're bringing the podcast north of the border to Canada, with live shows in Winnipeg, Calgary, and Vancouver. In advance of these shows, our own Ian Bawa spoke to the comedy duo about the questions they choose to give advice on, where new segments developed from, if their current Vimeo series Lonely and Horny, and what audiences should expect going to a live recording of If I Were You.

In the fall of 2017, Toronto comic Courtney Gilmour was coming off the biggest professional accolade of her comedy career: being named the co-winner (along with Montreal's DJ Mausner) of the Homegrown Comics competition at Just for Laughs Festival. The win included a spot among the 42 feature acts at September's JFL42 comedy festival in her hometown.

In the midst of JFL42, Andrew Lizotte sat down with Courtney for a long chat about her Homegrown win, her new CBC animated web series, and religion. The latter topic is the subject of her own podcast, So Help Me Pod, and in reality, Andrew just commandered her theme so he could sing Bible camp songs (which he swears is way cooler than it sounds).

Since the interview took place, Courtney's friends and family have started a GoFundMe for her to be able to afford her #DreamLeg. She was born without both hands and her right leg above the knee, and the state-of-the-art prosthetic leg she'd love to have currently costs $100,000. The Toronto comedy community has stepped up in a big way with fundraiser shows and more, but if you have a few dollars to spare, you should consider donating to the #DreamLeg fund at gofundme.com/dreamleg!

In the fall of 2017, Toronto comic Courtney Gilmour was coming off the biggest professional accolade of her comedy career: being named the co-winner (along with Montreal's DJ Mausner) of the Homegrown Comics competition at Just for Laughs Festival. The win included a spot among the 42 feature acts at September's JFL42 comedy festival in her hometown.

In the midst of JFL42, Andrew Lizotte sat down with Courtney for a long chat about her Homegrown win, her new CBC animated web series, and religion. The latter topic is the subject of her own podcast, So Help Me Pod, and in reality, Andrew just commandered her theme so he could sing Bible camp songs (which he swears is way cooler than it sounds).

Since the interview took place, Courtney's friends and family have started a GoFundMe for her to be able to afford her #DreamLeg. She was born without both hands and her right leg above the knee, and the state-of-the-art prosthetic leg she'd love to have currently costs $100,000. The Toronto comedy community has stepped up in a big way with fundraiser shows and more, but if you have a few dollars to spare, you should consider donating to the #DreamLeg fund at gofundme.com/dreamleg!

Rhys Darby may be best-known to audiences as Murray Hewitt on the acclaimed HBO series Flight of the Conchords, but the New Zealand Army veteran is also an accomplished stand-up comic, having worked all over the globe for nearly 2 decades and put out 3 stand-up specials. He's also starred in films such as Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi's brilliant vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows and the upcoming Jumanji reboot.

A veteran of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Montreal's Just for Laughs, Darby is now in the middle of JFL's Alternative Comedy Tour across Canada alongside headliner T.J. Miller. Back in September, during a visit to Toronto for JFL42, Andrew Lizotte sat down with him to cover a wide range of topics including show preparation, Conchords, his interest in cryptozoology, and his summiting of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Rhys Darby may be best-known to audiences as Murray Hewitt on the acclaimed HBO series Flight of the Conchords, but the New Zealand Army veteran is also an accomplished stand-up comic, having worked all over the globe for nearly 2 decades and put out 3 stand-up specials. He's also starred in films such as Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi's brilliant vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows and the upcoming Jumanji reboot.

A veteran of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Montreal's Just for Laughs, Darby is now in the middle of JFL's Alternative Comedy Tour across Canada alongside headliner T.J. Miller. Back in September, during a visit to Toronto for JFL42, Andrew Lizotte sat down with him to cover a wide range of topics including show preparation, Conchords, his interest in cryptozoology, and his summiting of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

After becoming a comedy and film superstar in France, 46-year-old Morocco-born Gad Elmaleh has spent the last couple years based out of New York, starting comedy in a brand new language and paying his dues again in rooms like the Comedy Cellar and Joe's Pub in NYC, and other smaller clubs across the United States. Of course, being an established performer -- even in another language -- meant Elmaleh's anglophone rise has been a bit quicker than for most comics.

Building off of appearances on Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and late night shows like CONAN and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the one-time Quebeccer is now playing theatres around Canada and the U.S., and is on the verge of recording his first English-language comedy special.

In advance of some Canadian stops on his "Oh My Gad" tour, Paul Little got the chance to speak to Elmaleh about his original interest in performing and comedy after he moved from Morocco to Quebec, his discovery of Seinfeld, his recent adjustments to both the English language and North American audiences, and his desire to be seen as funny beyond the gimmick of "starting over".