The Comic's Comic Presents Last Things First

Dave Smith is a native New Yorker and key member of the emerging new platform, GaS Digital Network. You've likely heard Dave as one-third of the Legion of Skanks alongside Big Jay Oakerson and Luis J Gomez, or as host of the podcast Part of the Problem, which combined receive hundreds of thousands of downloads each week. You also can see Dave featured regularly as a comedic political analyst on FOX News. He was a New Face at Montreal's Just For Laughs fest in 2013, and in 2017, he has released his first stand-up comedy special, Libertas, the first such special for GaS Digital. It's out Sept. 11. So let's get to it!

Scot Armstrong grew up outside of Chicago and first studied comedy under the legendary Del Close, before moving to New York City and joining the Upright Citizens Brigade improv troupe Mother, whose members included Jason Mantzoukas, Jon Daly and Jessica St. Clair. He has since worked with St. Clair as an executive producer on both of her TV series, Best Friends Forever and Playing House. But you've come to know Armstrong's work more through his screenplays, which have included Road Trip, Old School, Starsky & Hutch, School for Scoundrels, Semi-Pro, and The Hangover Part II. He's also the creator of the Showtime series DICE, which follows Andrew Dice Clay now past his prime in Las Vegas. DICE's second season debuted in August 2017. Armstrong sat down with me to talk about the Mother of all comedy stories, so let's get to it!

Ryan Hamilton grew up in a small town in Idaho and studied broadcasting before turning to comedy. Hamilton calls several comedy scenes home, and that perhaps allowed him to emerge nationally in the mid-2000s in Sierra Mist's America's Next Great Comic Search. He's also won the Great American Comedy Festival contest, and performed multiple times at Montreal's Just For Laughs festival, where I caught up with Hamilton before the debut of his first Netflix special, Happy Face. So let's get to it!

Lynne Koplitz caught her first wave of success hosting or co-hosting TV shows the likes of Change of Heart, How to Boil Water, and Life and Style. The stylish comedian became friends with the late great Joan Rivers while paired up in the IFC comedy Z Rock, and later became a recurring character on Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best. Koplitz more recently was seen on the big screen in Chris Rock's Top Five, and the small screen in Louis CK's Horace and Pete, and she dedicated her first Netflix comedy special, Hormonal Beast, to her mentor, Joan Rivers. Koplitz tells all to me…So let's get to it!

Janicza Bravo has made several short films that debuted at premier festivals such as Sundance and SXSW, and also directed an episode of the hit FX series, Atlanta. Bravo's first feature film, Lemon, features her husband, Brett Gelman, as an actor and acting coach who turns 40 and realizes nothing in his life is where it's supposed to be. In real life, you've seen Gelman shine in everything from Mad Men to Twin Peaks, as well as Comedy Bang! Bang!, Funny or Die Presents, Married, Love and Blunt Talk. They co-wrote Lemon, which hits theaters this August after a Sundance premiere earlier in 2017.

I sat down with Bravo and Gelman for some blunt talk about their love, marriage and how they think their lives and careers are matching up to expectations. So let's get to it!

Natalie Morales is an actress best known for her supporting roles in sitcoms that have included Parks and Recreation, Trophy Wife, Girls, and The Grinder. She's also done drama with White Collar, and action-adventure with The Middleman. She directed a webseries for Funny or Die about James Joyce's Love Letters, and you can currently see her on the Netflix series Santa Clarita Diet. Later in 2017, she'll co-star in the movie, Battle of the Sexes. But it's all love, no war here. So let's get to it!

Nate Bargatze is Jimmy Fallon's favorite stand-up comedian, and Bargatze has the Tonight Show credits to back that up. Nate also has gone on tour with Fallon, multiple tours to entertain the troops in Iraq and Kuwait, and has two hit comedy albums to boot: Yelled At By A Clown and Full Time Magic. Those are references to his father, who was a clown and now is a magician. Bargatze released his first hour special on Comedy Central in 2016, and he performs in two separate Netflix specials in 2017 — a Half-Hour as part of The Standups collection, and a showcase set in Brad Paisley's Comedy Rodeo. He's just as fun to talk to offstage as he is to listen to on it, so let's get to it!

Judd Apatow has one of the most impressive comedy resumes of anyone, anywhere. His Apatow Productions has produced and developed the television series Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, Girls, Love and Crashing, he has directed the hit movies The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Funny People, This Is 40 and Trainwreck, and produced another dozen smash comedies on film since the late 1990s. Before that, he wrote and produced on The Ben Stiller Show and The Larry Sanders Show. Before that, he infamously interviewed famous comedians while still in high school in the mid 1980s. As he approaches 50, though, Apatow has returned to his comedy roots and filming his first stand-up comedy special for Netflix. which he's recording at Just For Laughs in Montreal. I sat down with him as he made his final preparations for it, so let's get to it!

Dylan Brody started his stand-up career in New York City while still a teenager in the early 1980s, performing on multiple TV showcases, writing monologue jokes for Jay Leno when Leno was still just guest-hosting The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and he has performed around the world. In more recent years, you may have seen him on The Green Room with Paul Provenza, opening for fellow humorist David Sedaris on his stage tour, or on NPR affiliates in California. Brody has released several comedy albums just in the past decade, published three young adult books, and is touring his latest work, a one-man show about his life and career, Dylan Brody's Driving Hollywood. So let's get to it!

Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley had mutual friends growing up in Nebraska, but didn't meet each other until they were both aspiring comedic actresses in Los Angeles. Hensley has appeared in shows such as Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Smedley has appeared in several TV commercials. But together, they've built up a fan base of more than a million Facebook followers for their video series, I Mom So Hard. They talked to me about why they went to Facebook first instead of YouTube, and how they've adapted in just a year to performing for sold-out audiences across the country. I caught up with them in Los Angeles during a break in their Mom's Night Out Summer Break Tour that's hitting theaters across America in 2017. So let's get to it!