Mr. Media Interviews by Bob Andelman

Today's Guests: Ally Sheedy, actress, Steam, War Games, The Breakfast Club; Kate Siegel, Steam; Kyle Schickner, director, Steam Order Steam starring Ally Sheedy, Kate Siegel and Ruby Dee, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the DVD cover above! War Games starring Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the DVD cover above! Kyle Schickner’s new indie drama Steam had me at “it co-stars Ally Sheedy and Ruby Dee,” but made me a fan when Kate Siegel’s character says, “Mom, I’m a lesbian.” I know it doesn’t sound funny, being out of context and all, but it cracked me up. If you get the chance to see Steam at a film festival, please do. If you can’t find it there, take Mr. Media’s advice and request it in advance at Netflix or Blockbuster. It’s a sweet, satisfying little film with a great cast. Speaking of its great cast, I’m delighted to welcome two of lead actresses from Steam—Ally Sheedy and Kate Siegel—to today’s show, as well as writer/director Kyle Schickner. Ally Sheedy IMDB • Wikipedia • Twitter Kyle Schickner IMDB • Wikipedia • Facebook • Rotten Tomatoes Kate Siegel IMDB • Wikipedia • Twitter • 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: Dave Franco, Donald Faison, actors, "Scrubs" Picture this: I’m looking up to my left in a thoughtful pose, my right index finger gently tapping against my lower lip. Outwardly, I’m introducing my guests, a.k.a., "Christopher Turk"—and Dave Franco. Inwardly, I’m daydreaming, trying to imagine what their co-star, Zach Braff would be thinking about if he were me Order from Amazon.com by clicking the DVD cover above! How would Braff—who plays “J.D.” on the show—introduce his extremely close friend Faison in a way that would both warm your heart and reveal something unintentionally embarrassing about their relationship? DONALD FAISON audio excerpt: "(J.D. and Turk) are still crazy! They're just considered adults now. You remember how it was when you were all of a sudden considered an adult and you had all the responsibility in the world. But you felt you were as young as the people who look up to you or you were mentoring? That's how Turk and J.D. feel."  And what would he say about Franco, about whom I know little going into this interview except that a similarly named actor James Franco is currently appearing on an ABC soap opera? That, too, must be my imagination. The daydream just went poof—I slipped in a puddle deliberately left on the floor next to my desk by The Janitor. Damn you, Janitor!!! Donald Faison Facebook • Twitter • Funny or Die Dave Franco Funny or Die • IMDB • Wikipedia • Facebook • Twitter (Fan) 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: Andrea Kay, author, Life's a Bitch and Then You Change Careers: 9 Steps to Get You Out of Your Funk & on to Your Future Andrea Kay, author, Life's A Bitch, Work's A Bitch   Order from Amazon.com by clicking the book cover above! It sucks to be unemployed right now and, strangely, it’s not much more comforting to be employed, is it? This seems like an opportune time to talk to a career consultant and executive coach and, frankly, I’m surprised Andrea Kay has time to talk with us. Who ISN’T looking for job advice today? Andrea writes a syndicated weekly newspaper column called “At Work” and is the author of two books, Life’s a Bitch and then You Change Careers and her latest, Work’s a Bitch and then You Make It Work. The good news: I get to say the word “bitch” a lot and no one will be insulted! Andrea Kay Website • Twitter • Facebook • Order Life's A Bitch or Work's A Bitch from Amazon.com Order 'Work's A Bitch' or 'This is How You Get Your Next Job' both by Andrea Kay, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book covers above! 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: Steven Savile, novelist, Parallel Lines   Parallel Lines by Steven Saville. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above! Watch this exclusive Mr. Media interview with STEVEN SAVILE by clicking on the video player above!  Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience full of potential criminals who know why banks get robbed so often… in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida! If you are geography-challenged, buckle in. My guest today, novelist Steven Savile, is a British writer, living in Sweden, whose latest novel is about a bank robbery gone ridiculously wrong… in Chicago. Got it? STEVEN SAVILE podcast excerpt: "Stephen Hawking has lived more than 30 years with his (ALS/Lou Gehrig's Disease) diagnosis. But with others, it can be horribly quick. My uncle has got two kids and both of them suffer from ALS. It's actually a disease that's really close to home. I've seen the effect it has on people. I found it really hard when my father-in-law died of ALS. With a work of fiction such as 'Parallel Lines,' I wanted to experience my own catharsis. This was a way of writing out a bit of the grief" Parallel Lines is a fast-moving crime story about how our individual destinies move similarly alongside one another without ever touching – and what happens when some of them finally do intersect. It is written with seamless craft and attention to detail without ever letting any of that slow down the plot. As for the writer, Steven Savile – who is talking to us today from Sweden – he is a genre-jumping author who is as at home with bad dudes in the Windy City as he is taking flight with Doctor Who or jumping through time and space in Stargate mythology. Steven Savile Website • Twitter • Wikipedia • Goodreads The Millionaire's Convenient Arrangement by 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: Neal Baer, executive producer "Law & Order: SVU" Law & Order SVU Ultimate Collection Seasons 1-15, Mariska Hargitay, Christopher Meloni. Order your copy today by clicking on the DVD set above! The Law & Order television franchise has passed through numerous stages over its two decades on the air at NBC. There was innovation, as in the split show format of the original; shock, as in the horrible nature of some of the crimes depicted; expansion, as in the addition of series such as “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”; ubiquity, as in, “isn’t there anything on besides these doggone crime shows”; and, finally, respect, as in Mariska Hargitay winning the 2006 Emmy Award for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Neal Baer, showrunner, Law and Order: SVU Kill Switch by Neal Baer and Jonathan Greene, Mr. Media Interviews NEAL BAER podcast excerpt: "The secret of the show's success? I think it's the teaming of Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni. I think they're the longest running team in drama; Ozzie & Harriet beat them in comedy—they ran for 14 years. They've got great chemistry. Chris represents the rage we feel about the crimes and Mariska represents the empathy we feel toward the victims."  That’s all the stuff that you and my wife see when you watch hour after hour of “Law & Order.” But what goes on behind the scenes? That’s what I hope to discover from today’s guest, Dr. Neal Baer, the executive producer of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” Dr. Baer is a real medical doctor with a degree from Harvard; he interned at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles and, more germane to a discussion of TV, he was on the original writing staff of “ER,” eventually rising to the position of executive producer. Neal Baer Facebook • IMDB • Wikipedia • Twitter • Killswitch 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: Wendy Pini, Richard Pini, co-creators, Elfquest Order 'Elfquest Archives Vol. 1' by Wendy and Richard Pini from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! You know when you meet someone early in your life how that’s the person they will always be in your mind’s eye? That’s how I’ll always see Wendy Pini. I was a teenager with a comic book fixation, and she was a stunning redhead who dressed up at comic book conventions as Red Sonja, the chain-mail, bikini-wearing, female barbarian that emerged from Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian comics. She also participated in a nightclub show put together by comics artist Frank Thorne, with Thorne as “The Wizard.” My friend Bob Pinaha was a little older than me at the time. Well, I guess he’s still older than me, now that I think about it, and he had a real thing for Wendy, so I always saw his latest Polaroid snapshots of her. Wow! We were all doubly impressed over the years as Wendy re-emerged in comics as a successful artist, writer, and publisher and the creator of the Japanese manga-influenced Elfquest books that have endured for the past 30 years. Elfquest, most recently published by DC Comics, was actually a production of Wendy and her husband, Richard Pini. Wendy and Richard join me today to talk about Elfquest’s long run as well as their latest work, an online comics adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s novel, Masque of the Red Death. Wendy Pini, co-creator, Elfquest Wendy Pini Elfquest Website • Facebook • Wikipedia • Order Wendy Pini's Masque of the Red Death by Amazon.com Order Will Eisner: A Spirited Life (2nd Edition) by Bob Andelman, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Jeff Garlin, comedian, actor, "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "The Goldbergs" Order 'I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With" from Amazon.com by clicking on the DVD cover above! Today is a great day to be Jeff Garlin. And for him, tomorrow will probably be an even better day. The sixth season of the hugely popular and hysterically funny HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” starring Larry David and co-starring Garlin, is now underway. But even better, I suspect, for Garlin is that his first movie as writer, director, and star, I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With, opened on September 5. The New York Times greeted Garlin’s Cheese this way: laid back and affectionate, Cheese is the movie version of a dear friend you could spend all day with. Not bad for a guy from Chicago. Jeff Garlin Website • Twitter • Facebook • Tumblr • By the Way, Jeff Garlin's Podcast • Order Curb Your Enthusiasm, Season 1, from Amazon.com • Order I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With from Amazon.com • Order Curbing It by Jeff Garlin from Amazon.com More Mr. Media Interviews from Curb Your Enthusiasm: Cheryl Hines (Oct. 21, 2007) • Larry David's video editor Roger Nygard (2011) 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: Ann David, novelist, Bought: A Novel, Party Girl Order 'Bought: A Novel' by Anna David, available from Amazon.com in print or ebook by clicking on the book cover above! I’m probably not the target market for chick lit books, so I approached Anna David’s second novel, Bought, a little skeptically. On the other hand, who doesn’t enjoy a little fiction about high-end prostitution and the sex trade in Hollywood? What I didn’t expect was getting drawn into a subplot about celebrity journalism ethics. That, and a really well told story that puts the reader right in the mind of the story’s lead character, Emma, who kind of drifts through life. Anna David Website • Twitter • Facebook • Byliner • YouTube • iTunes App • The After Party on Facebook • The After Party Group on Twitter •  Order Reality Matters from Amazon.com Order 'Party Girl: A Novel' by Anna David, available in print or ebook from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! 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: Anna David, author, Reality Matters Order 'Reality Matters: 19 Writers Come Clean About the Shows We Can't Stop Watching' edited by Anna David, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above!   Anna David, editor, Reality Matters Has your television viewing been subsumed by reality television in recent years? I know mine has. Top Chef, Top Chef Masters, Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmare, Big Brother, Survivor, The Dog Whisperer, The Apprentice—original, not the extra-crispy celebrity edition--and even I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here have all enjoyed addictive viewing in the Mr. Media household. I’ve also enjoyed Shark Tank and Stan Lee’s Who Wants to be a Superhero? I’ve cooled on Survivor, now in its 20th season, and Big Brother, which is coming up on its 12th, but I’m surprisingly content to watch the cooking shows for hours on end—even though you’ll rarely catch me doing anything but raiding the refrigerator for leftovers. ANNA DAVID audio excerpt: "When I first came up with the idea, my agent at the time said, 'No, don't do that book. it'll go out of date quickly.' I left that agent, walked into a room with a publisher, told them the idea and they bought it immediately. A lot of people deride these shows as a sign of our cultural apocalypse. But even if the shows aren't interesting, what people have to say about them are." Order 'True Tales of Lust and Love' by Anna David, available from Amazon.com in print or ebook by clicking on the book cover above! In an age when sitcoms don’t deliver the belly laughs they once did, Lost and 24 are ending and the best dramas have migrated to cable, there are nights when a made-on-the-cheap reality TV show is the best thing the broadcast networks have left to offer us. Joining me tonight is Anna David, editor of a new compilation of essays on the state of reality TV called Reality Matters: 18 Writers Come Clean About the Shows We Can’t Stop Watching. The book is packed with insights into why we can’t avert our eyes from a landscape of lying liars and cheating cheaters. Speaking of which, the book’s foreword is by Oprah’s favorite lying dog, James Frey. As for Anna, this is her third book. The first two, Bought and Party Girl, were chick lit novels. She is also the sex-and-relationship expert on G4’s Attack of the Show and is a regular contributor on the news network version of reality TV, Fox. This is Anna’s second visit to Mr. Media. Anna David Website • Twitter • Facebook • Byliner • YouTube • iTunes App • The After Party on Facebook • The After Party Group on Twitter •  Order Reality Matters from Amazon.com 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: Mark Schultz, comic book artist, creator, Xenozoic Tales, a.k.a., Cadillacs and Dinosaurs   Part 1 of 2 Detail from Xenozoic Tales by Mark Schultz Back in the mid-1980s, when serious comic book fans heard that artist and writer Mark Schultz had created a world that crossed dinosaurs and Cadillacs, their first reaction was: “Cool!” Some no doubt thought that it was too much of a gimmick to succeed. Again: dinosaurs? And Cadillacs? No doubt a big seller at the recently opened Creation Museum in Kentucky, but some couldn’t help but be a little dubious. Until you opened the pages of Xenozoic Tales, that is, and experienced first-hand the ingenious storytelling and rich tapestry of comic art. I remember seeing a couple random issues of the book, which was published for more than a decade, and finding it captivating. But I was outside the comics scene and it wasn’t easy to find. The stories later were published as “Cadillacs and Dinosaurs,” and even adapted into 13 episodes of a popular Saturday morning cartoon series in 1993. MARK SCHULTZ audio excerpt: "I'm working on completing my Storms At Sea project for Flesk. My next project is a new Xenozoic story, which will probably be prose, heavily illustrated. Lots of pictures of Hannah and ugly old Jack."  After a long absence, the collected adventures of Jack Tenrec and Hannah Dundee are back in print in a hardcover edition simply title Xenozoic. Reading it from start to finish, I was struck by several things: the oozing sexuality and pinup beauty of almost every woman Schultz draws; the ugliness of most all the men; and, most interesting of all, the sturdiness of the environmental subplot moving of the overall narrative forward. Even better: Schultz promises more Xenozoic tales in the near future! Mark Schulz Facebook • Order Xenozoic Tales from Amazon.com Part 2 of 2 Order Will Eisner: A Spirited Life (2nd Edition) by Bob Andelman, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!