The Big Wakeup Call

Should-be Hall-of-Famer David Cone called in to chat about his new book "Full Count: The Education of a Pitcher." I learned so much about pitching talking to David, a self-confessed "pitching nerd."  I also invited David for a game of Wiffle Ball in my backyard and he accepted.  Looking forward to it the next time he's in Chicago and we can compare Wiffle Ball sinkers.

Jordan Klepper joined the show for a chat about his new Comedy Central series "Klepper," which airs Thursday nights at 10:30/9:30C. We discussed Jordan's time in Chicago as part of the Second City touring company, how the show was named, and why it was important for him to get out from behind the desk and go out and about.

John Waters dialed us up for chat about his new book "Mr. Know-It-All."  We also discussed our transitive property connection that totally makes us best friends, and then John tried to teach me to be cool.

Pete Holmes called in to talk about his new book "Comedy Sex God" and share memories of his time Chicago, including our rumored confrontational encounter at the downtown Bennigan's.

Emmy Award-winning writer Steve Young called in to talk about his new documentary "Bathtubs Over Broadway," chronicling his discovery and love of industrial musicals, which began as a quest to find weird records for Letterman's "Dave's Record Collection."

Bill McCormick from the World News Center dialed in to respond to some listener emails before leading a discussion on the accuracy of the time travel elements of "Avengers: Endgame."

Jim Breuer returned to the show to promote his new comedy album "Live from Portland," now available on all digital platforms.  We talked about joys of getting old (especially colonoscopies), opening for Metallica, and my daughter's newly discovered love for Goat Boy.

After Bill (perhaps jokingly) mentioned on Facebook that he'd be up for taking calls from listeners, our devoted Big Wakeup Call fanbase sprang into action, spurring lively and productive discussions about Rotten Tomatoes, Twitter, and vodka.

Ian Doescher, author of the "William Shakespeare's Star Wars" series, called in to talk about his new series of "Pop Shakespeare" books, beginning with "Get Thee...Back to the Future!"

Chrissy Metz returned to The Big Wakeup Call to talk about her new movie, "Breakthrough." We discussed the challenges of playing a character based on an actual person, how she prepared to play a mom, and how she's working on recording some tunes.