The Callback Podcast

I first saw our guest this week, Patrick Keane, doing standup at the Hollywood Improv and really enjoyed his stuff. Witty, biting and funny. I got the chance to meet him after another show and found him to be a good guy as well. I asked him to do the podcast, and he agreed. We drove out to his place which is suspiciously near the Manson murder scene and had a great time talking about his upbringing and other forces that led him to Hollywood to pursue comedy as a career. He was just as funny and interesting as he was on stage, and a little over an hour later, we knew we had another great podcast. Check out Patrick's website to see videos of his stand-up and television appearances as well as a calendar of his upcoming live performances. Enjoy!

Wayne Federman was once a sandwich. Let me start from the beginning. We met Wayne in the greenroom of the world famous Hollywood Improv. He is what one might refer to as a renaissance man. He is a standup comic, an actor, a musician, a gentle lover and the biggest basketball fan I’ve ever known. So much so that he wrote a book about “Pistol Pete” Maravich. In my experience the hardest part of writing a book regardless of the subject, is first learning how to read a book.

 

Here's a fun drinking game for this episode: anytime someone mentions a death, take a drink. I do feel that it is most important to mention that Wayne Federman was once a sandwich. Federman & Out!

Craig Cackowski was a man without a home for one short afternoon in mid July 2012. So we did what any good podcast would do: we invited him to my apartment in the skies of Sherman Oaks to join us for an interview. At first, like all of our guests, he refused, until he found out there would be fresh tamales. His agent negotiated that we get pork and spinach for him, and we happily obliged. During the interview, Craig’s new show "Trust Us With Your Life" came on the television which is ironic considering he trusted us with his. We totally could have poisoned those tamales if we really wanted to. Not that we would, but you know...

He impersonated a priest. He performed comedy in front of maximum security inmates. He has a certain set of skills. Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only Bill Devlin joins us this week on the Callback Podcast. We planned on performing this interview on the roof of Bill’s home, but an unseasonal rain storm and the subtle murmur of helicopter blades coming from a downtown LA protest put an end to that idea. We opted instead for the inside of his living quarters where the warmth of summer air coming through the windows and a bottle of Jamison awaited us. His wife was kind enough to offer us homemade Thai food, but we had imposed on their lives enough. Maybe for Thanksgiving, though.

Another podcast with just the hosts? You have got to be kidding me! What more do these guys have to talk about? Lots of stuff. That’s what. John helps Aaron and Edgar plan best man speeches, the guys discuss baseball and the state of affairs of the teams that they halfheartedly support, and we all learn the juicy details of Aaron’s priceless piece of artwork, a Velvet E.T. We promise there will be more special guests in the future. Or maybe we’ll just pull the plug on this whole operation. It’s up to you, America. Either deal with the occasional podcast with just the hosts or we’re calling it quits. Text in your votes today.

We had booked this week’s guest, actor Steve Seagren to be on our podcast during the joyous morning of Cinco de Mayo. Little did we know, each year on May 5th Steve holes himself up inside his bedroom closet and refuses to come out for anyone or anything. In order to appease him and his demands, we conducted our interview via telephone. We spoke with him for about an hour, and the interview could have continued further but for the fact that we didn’t bring enough quarters with us and the operator refused to let the  conversation continue without the phone company gaining a financial benefit from it. Luckily, we had him on the line long enough to hear about how he ruined countless scenes on the hit TV show "Everybody Hates Chris."

Every year on May 15, I warn my family and friends to beware the Ides of March. Julius Caesar didn’t and we all know what happened to that guy. Little did I know that I should have heeded my own warning. This week we interview Scott May, the keyboard player for the band The Ides of March. You may have heard the band's hit song “Vehicle” which was immensely popular and has been used in numerous film and television shows, most notably in the Sylvester Stallone-Donald Sutherland film “Lock Up,” which not only did poorly at the box office but was also not very well received by critics. You may have heard some of this interview when host John Novotny called into WGN's the Bill Leff Show to talk to Scott. If not, ignore that you ever heard that.

I first met the impregnable Vince Vieluf outside of his humble bungalow once owned by Charlie Chaplin (fun fact: Chaplin’s brother Sydney once bit off actress Molly Wright’s nipple).  I greeted him with a handshake and he reciprocated by extending his arm and firmly grasping his hand around mine while we simultaneously bobbed our hands up down about 3 or 4 times, while politely smiling at each other and exchanging pleasantries. It was a blast from the past for me, because Vince starred in the very first rated R movie I ever snuck into as a youth, “American Werewolf in Paris.” He didn't seem to know who we were or what we were doing in his home but nevertheless offered us his finest vodka and electronic cigarettes. For some reason I wasn’t allergic to his cat.

It was late Sunday night when Rich Ceisler came into my life as quickly as he left. We called him on the telephone to conduct our no

holds barred interview, an invention that Alexander Graham Bell claims to have invented but I have my doubts. Then again, I’ve always been an Elisha Gray sympathizer. When Rich isn’t traveling the seven seas as a stand up funny man, he eats food and enjoys walking. On a serious note, call the phone number at the end of the interview. This guy doesn’t deserve to be treated like he was.

John Novotny, Aaron Glas and I, Edgar Volfson, first met Timothy Sean Shannon in front of his home in Glendale. I won’t say whether it was in Glendale, California or Glendale, Arizona for the sake of guest confidentiality. He decorated his car hole nicely with homemade paintings, stacks of baseball cards and the noticeable musk of Diet Dr. Pepper. From the moment we walked in, T. Sean could not stop bragging about the Emmy he won as a writer for the Emmy winning television show, Saturday Night Live. Because of that, we refused to mention it on air. Screw that guy and his hospitality. Can you believe the nerve of that guy? Giving out free copies of his book “Come and Get It” and refusing to let me borrow his Emmy to pick up chicks really sealed his fate. Did I mention he won an Emmy?