Mr. Media Interviews by Bob Andelman

Today's Guest: Kambri Crews, author, Burn Down the Ground Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of angry construction workers who are Dumb with a capital D—and dumber—but can hear every word I’m saying… in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida!   Order from Amazon.com by clicking the book cover above This is not a show people tune into for a lot of heartbreaking conversation. I’m not Oprah and I don’t enjoy fiddling with your heartstrings. So on its own merits, I honestly would have never chosen Kambri Crews’ new book, Burn Down the Ground: A Memoir as a topic of conversation. But there’s a quirky bit of Mr. Media history tangled up here. KAMBRI CREWS audio excerpt: "It is a sad story. But it's not full of sadness. It's full of hope."  Several years ago, Kambri’s husband, comedian Christian Finnegan, was a guest on the show. We got to talking about in-law jokes and he made a remark about how he doesn’t joke about his because his mother-in-law is a lovely woman and his deaf father-in-law is serving 20 years in a Texas prison for attempted murder. Ba-da-bing? No. That momentarily brought the conversation to a halt. Frankly, I didn’t know what to say. A few weeks ago, a publicist pitched me on a new book by Kambri Crews about her insanely crazy, sometimes violent upbringing as a hearing child of deaf parents. I didn’t really think it was right for this show until I read the last line of the pitch: “She is married to standup comedian Christian Finnegan.” Quick, what’s American Sign Language for “Holy Shit!”? Suddenly I had the opportunity to get what the late broadcaster Paul Harvey would call “the REST of the story.” Kambri Crews Website • Twitter • Facebook • Read an excerpt • Order Burn Down the Ground: A Memoir from Amazon.com Kicking Through the Ashes: My Life As A Stand-up in the 1980s Comedy Boom by Ritch Shydner. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Curt Smith, singer, Tears For Fears Tears For Fears: Songs from the Big Chair, Curt Smith. Order your copy today by clicking on the album cover above! Here’s a Tears For Fears story I guarantee you haven’t heard before: I was the pop music critic for the St. Petersburg Times in 1985, assigned to review a Tears For Fears concert. I rushed back to the paper’s Clearwater bureau that night to file my story. Waiting for it in downtown St. Petersburg was the late night editor, Christine Holsten. I filed my story and waited for her to read it and answer any questions she might have. CURT SMITH audio excerpt: "Tears for Fears is where myself and Roland meet. It's about compromise. I know when I write a certain song that it's not going to be Roland's cup of tea. Our solo work is incredibly personal."  But her major question wasn’t about my story; it was about the photo credit. The photographer identified his picture as Roland Orzabal on the left, Curt Smith on the right. But Christine wasn’t convinced. I said the photographer had it correct, but she had the final call and switched the ID in the caption. Shout: The Very Best of Tears For Fears, Curt Smith. Order your copy today by clicking on the album cover above! It was probably the last time I was right about anything in our relationship, but I was right; she was wrong. A horde of TFF fans called in the next day to say how stupid I was for getting it wrong, of course. (They weren’t happy about being referred to as “teeny-boppers,” either!) That was one of the first real moments that truly bound us and to this day, whenever we hear a Tears song playing, we can’t help but stop and fondly reminisce about that night. We’ve now been married 22 years and counting. Which is my long way of telling you that my guest today is Tears For Fears’ Curt Smith, who has released a new holiday single, “This is Christmas,” and will be playing several solo gigs in Los Angeles in 2011 and will rejoin Roland Orzabal for a Tears For Fears tour of South America and the U.S. West Coast. Tears For Fears' Curt Smith Website • Facebook • Twitter • MySpace • YouTube  • Flickr   Kicking Through the Ashes: My Life As A Stand-up in the 1980s Comedy Boom by Ritch Shydner. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: John Caparulo, comedian, "Caplets" podcast   Watch this exclusive Mr. Media interview with John Caparulo by clicking on the video player above!    Married couple John Caparulo and Jamie Caparulo host a podcast, "Domestic Disputes" Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience full of two-drink-minimum political critics that wouldn’t know a phallic symbol if it was dangling in front of their nose … in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida! I think the first thing you need to know about comedian John Caparulo is where he was on November 8, 2016. Home. With his beautiful wife Jamie. And infant daughter, Madden. Oh, and I think his dog, Barney, was probably there, too. Why is this important? Because while it was Election Day in the United States, neither John nor Jamie was motivated to go out and vote. Not for The Donald; Not for Hillary. As Jamie put it on their podcast, “Domestic Disputes,” “We didn’t feel either one of them was worth putting on pants to vote for.” Watch John Caparulo's live comedy podcast "Caplets" I’m not telling you that to form a judgment, just as a point of information for what happened four months later, in late February 2017. JOHN CAPARULO podcast excerpt: "When you watch the video, I didn't move. I just trusted my belly to absorb the blow. And it did. I was just glad I got the whole thing on tape. I'm not a politically-charged comedian -- those are big world problems and I have a small world point of view." John was recording an installment of his short-form video stand-up series, “Caplets,” when he cracked wise about the new president. A lady in the audience didn’t like his jokes and eventually launched a beer his way, hitting her mark. The clip quickly went viral, thanks to TMZ. What’s odd is that Caparulo isn’t exactly known for his political commentary. Domestic commentary, yes. Sports, yes. Politics? Eh, not so much. But in an era when comics need a little something extra to stand out – a podcast, a sitcom, regular appearances on Colbert, Maher or Kimmel – a drunk at the Hermosa Beach Magic & Comedy Club gave this new daddy his chance for a little stardust. By the way, Caparulo isn’t new to this show. He made his first appearance on Mr. Media back in October 2010. John Caparulo Website • Facebook • Twitter • MySpace • YouTube Kicking Through the Ashes: My Life As A Stand-up in the 1980s Comedy Boom by Ritch Shydner. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!   The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Alana de la Garza, actor, "Law and Order" Alana de la Garza, actor, Law and Order Alana De La Garza is part of one TV’s proudest and longest-running dramatic institutions: the “Law & Order” franchise. She plays assistant district attorney “Connie Rubirosa” alongside Linus Roache and Sam Waterson, taking to court the cases developed on the street by Jeremy Sisto and Anthony Anderson. The Millionaire's Convenient Arrangementby Jane Peden. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Howard Sounes, author Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney   Order Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney by Howard Sounes, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! Howard Sounes won’t deny that there have been an awful lot of books about the Beatles and Paul McCartney. But that didn’t give him pause; he just researched and wrote one of the best: Fab, An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney. 27: A History of the 27 Club through the Lives of Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse by Howard Sounes, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! This massive, 634-page biography covers so much time and detail that I wasn’t sure I could read all of it in a timely manner and still conduct an interview in this calendar year. So I proposed a compromise: let’s just talk about the second half of the book: Linda Eastman McCartney, the Wings years, the in-fighting among the ex-Beatles, John Lennon’s death, Linda’s death, George Harrison’s death, his marriage and death to Heather Mills, and so on. HOWARD SOUNES podcast excerpt: "Heather Mills is revealed by the facts to what she is... a very strong character."  This part of the book is plenty rich and, I think, a little less known and understood than the Beatles years, which have been examined and analyzed. (We did cheat a little and talk about the breaking news that hit just minutes before the interview was recorded: Beatles for Sale, on iTunes.) Joining me now – live on tape – from London, England is Paul McCartney biographer and the author of Fab, Howard Sounes. Howard Sounes Wikipedia • Website Kicking Through the Ashes: My Life As A Stand-up in the 1980s Comedy Boom by Ritch Shydner. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Richard Brody, author, Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean Luc-Godard Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean Luc-Godard by Richard Brody. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above! I studied French New Wave cinema in college. Took it twice, in fact, in Professor Robert Ray’s class at the University of Florida. Little-known fact – my degree is actually in Film Studies. Anyway, I loved the French New Wave films from the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. What I didn’t care for was the over-inflated discussion that followed each screening. I’d watch the movies, in awe of the storytelling, the jump cuts, the women, the casual sex – you get the idea. But when the lights came up, Professor Ray always insisted on going deep into the meaning and motivation of the filmmaker. So here I am, Mr. A Mile Wide and an Inch Deep, about to welcome the esteemed film critic of The New Yorker magazine and author of the new book, Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean Luc-Godard. It’s a fascinating look at the best of the best of French New Wave, the auteur behind Breathless, A Woman is A Woman, La Chinoise, King Lear, and many more. And it made me wish I was more patient back in Professor Ray’s class more than 25 years ago. Richard Brody Facebook • Twitter • Wikipedia • IMDB • Goodreads • Rotten Tomatoes • The New Yorker Kicking Through the Ashes: My Life As A Stand-up in the 1980s Comedy Boom by Ritch Shydner. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Marlise Kast, author, Tabloid Prodigy: Getting the Gossip, and Selling My Soul in the Cutthroat World of Hollywood Reporting Marlise Kast, author Tabloid Prodigy: Getting the Gossip, and Selling My Soul in the Cutthroat World of Hollywood Reporting   Tabloid Prodigy: Dishing the Dirt, Getting the Gossip, and Selling My Soul in the Cutthroat World of Hollywood Reporting by Marlise Kast. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above! There are people who read supermarket tabloids and – aw, wait a minute. We all know everybody reads the tabs, why lie? And if there are that many readers, there have to be some pretty good writers and editors. Writers such as Marlise Elizabeth Kast of Globe magazine. Marlise spent three years at Globe, covering the likes of Morgan Freeman and Mary Bono, Bobby Brown and Madonna, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire. She lived through it and wrote a book, Tabloid Prodigy: Dishing the Dirt, Getting the Gossip, and Selling My Soul in the Cutthroat World of Hollywood Reporting. Marlise Kast Website • LinkedIn • Goodreads The Millionaire's Convenient Arrangementby Jane Peden. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Joe Ariel, founder, Eats.com I’m getting hungry already. What do you expect—today’s guest is Joe Ariel, founder and CEO of Eats Media Group, which publishes a regional network of Eats magazines and College Eats magazine, as well as producing Eats.com. And unless I’m mistaken, we’re going to talk a lot about food. The Millionaire's Convenient Arrangementby Jane Peden. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!       The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Tatiana Siegel, reporter, The Hollywood Reporter Order a subscription to The Hollywood Reporter, available via Amazon.com by clicking on the magazine cover above! How do you measure the summer? Baseball games, picnics, trips to the beach? Around my house, it’s the Monday box office scores – rounded to the nearest million dollars, of course. The first three big movies of Summer 2007 – Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and Shrek the Third – all opened with predictably big weekend hauls. But these three sure things didn’t overwhelm the general movie-going public quite the way most observers thought they would. All three have been panned by critics and aren’t generating the buzz many expected. Their performance opened the door for something a little less spectacular – the new Judd Apatow movie, Knocked Up, which has won rave reviews and could gain even bigger audience as the long hot summer continues – at least until the new Harry Potter movie opens. To talk about this summer’s movies – as well as the just-completed Cannes Film Festival, which she attended – I invited The Hollywood Reporter's Tatiana Siegel to join us today. For the past four years, Siegel has worked at The Hollywood Reporter covering the economics of the entertainment industry. She tracks three major studios: Sony, Paramount, DreamWorks, and MGM. Siegel also covers the agency beat, following the behind-the-scenes developments at such talent powerhouses as CAA, William Morris, and Endeavor. She has interviewed hundreds of studio executives, producers and directors and enjoys unique access to agents, managers and publicists. In this entertaining, informative, audio interview, Siegel reviews the financial performance of the summer's first blockbusters; offers her opinion on Pirates' second week box office plummet; points out the shrinking number of women directors in Hollywood; describes the scene at this year's Cannes Film Festival; explains why Frank Miller's adaption of Will Eisner's The Spirit moved up on the schedule and Sin City 2 stepped back; and finally, why Ari Gold and Vincent Chase still matter. Tatiana Siegel Twitter • LinkedIn • Subscribe to The Hollywood Reporter via Amazon.com Kicking Through the Ashes: My Life As A Stand-up in the 1980s Comedy Boom by Ritch Shydner. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

From 2008: I hate it when people confuse actors with the characters they play. For example, just because 11-year-old Joey Luthman appears on the Showtime sitcom “Weeds” doesn’t mean he’s a pothead. At least I hope not! And just because he has a role in the new movie An American Carol alongside Kelsey Grammer, Leslie Nielsen, Dennis Hoppe and James Woods doesn’t mean he’s a conservative right-winger. Not that there’s anything wrong with it.