Episode 186 — Christmas at Scott’s: A Mystery CD Listening Party

Happy holidays from The Conner & Smith Show! 🎄💿

This week, we’re doing something a little different — and a lot more festive.

In this episode, we gather around the metaphorical Christmas tree for a real-time listening party, diving into a mystery mixed CD lovingly gifted to us by Scott W, one of our cherished Patreon supporters. We press play, track by track, with no advance warning of what’s coming next — reacting, reminiscing, spiraling, and chatting our way through each song as it unfolds.

What starts as a simple CD becomes a holiday hang, a musical time capsule, and a reminder of why mixtapes (and mixed CDs) are such personal, magical gifts. Expect surprises, strong opinions, emotional whiplash, nostalgia, and plenty of side commentary as we unwrap Scott’s playlist one song at a time.

It’s intimate, unscripted, and very much in the spirit of the season — a thank-you to our listeners, our supporters, and the joy of sharing music together.

Happy holidays, everyone. ❤️✨

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Episode 185 — O Christmas Tree

Welcome back to The Conner & Smith Show, where one simple holiday symbol turns into a full-blown festive deep dive.

In this episode, we’re talking Christmas trees past, present, and fabulously over-the-top — from the surprising origins of the Christmas tree tradition to the many forms it’s taken over the years. We unpack the glory of silver aluminum trees, the undeniable power of a pink Christmas tree, the eternal real-vs-fake debate, and the era of themed trees that defined our personal histories (yes… there was a Madonna tree, and yes… a Cher tree followed).

It’s part holiday history lesson, part nostalgic spiral, and part aesthetic manifesto — with plenty of opinions, memories, and side tangents along the way. Cozy, chaotic, and unapologetically festive, this episode is a love letter to the trees that made our holidays weird, wonderful, and very us.

🎄✨

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Episode 184 – Cozy Couch, Christmas Cabaret & Chit Chat

Welcome back to The Conner & Smith Show — and buckle up, because this episode is pure holiday chaos in the best possible way.

Today we’re talking Thanksgiving, we’re talking my upcoming Christmas cabaret, and we’re DEFINITELY talking about our brand-new couch, which — in true Conner & Smith fashion — gets delivered in the middle of the episode. Yes. You can literally hear our domestic life unfolding in real time. Hilarity absolutely ensues.

It’s cozy, it’s ridiculous, it’s festive, and it’s the kind of episode where you feel like you’re hanging out with us in the living room (because… you basically are).

🎟 Get tickets to My Favorite Things at Creative Cauldron:

https://www.creativecauldron.org/

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It’s a luminous day on The Conner & Smith Show as we welcome Susan Derry and Howard Breitbart to talk about their upcoming holiday cabaret, Derry & Bright, premiering at Creative Cauldron as part of Susan’s season-long role as Cabaret Artist in Residence.

In this conversation, we dive into the creative spark behind the show, the musical surprises they’re crafting, the joy (and mischief) of holiday performance, and the collaborative magic between Susan and Howard. We also chat about special guest Manny Arciniega, the evolving cabaret scene at Creative Cauldron, and what audiences can expect from this warm, witty, and wildly musical celebration.

If you love cabaret, holiday music, or just great conversation with great artists, this episode is a must-listen.

🎟 Get tickets to Derry & Bright at Creative Cauldron:

https://www.creativecauldron.org/

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Episode 182 – My Favorite Things

Welcome to a very special holiday edition of The Conner & Smith Show!

On today’s episode, Matt turns the tables and interviews me about all of my very favorite holiday things — the memories, the music, the traditions, and the inspirations that shaped my upcoming holiday cabaret, My Favorite Things, happening Tuesday, December 9th at Creative Cauldron.

We dive into everything from the pink-tinsel aesthetic to the stories behind some of the songs in the show, plus a few surprises about what the holidays truly mean to me. If you want a behind-the-scenes peek before the performance, this episode is it.

🎟 Get tickets to My Favorite Things at Creative Cauldron:

https://www.creativecauldron.org/

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Day 31 – Episode 181: Clown in a Cornfield (2025)

Happy Halloween!

On Day 31 of The Conner & Smith Show’s 31 Days of Halloween, Matt and Ryan take over the podcast to discuss Clown in a Cornfield — a movie Matt has never seen! While I was busy entertaining friends, the boys decided to close out our spooky season with chaos, laughter, and some truly wild takes. The results are absolutely hilarious. (P.S. — not that anyone asked me, but I love this movie.)

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Day 30 – Episode 180: Together (2025)

On Day 30 of The Conner & Smith Show’s 31 Days of Halloween, I’m flying solo to talk about Together (2025) — starring real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie. I really wanted to like this one, especially with its promising setup and the duo’s natural chemistry, but what starts as a tense psychological thriller quickly veers into something closer to a satire on codependency. The film toys with horror aesthetics — eerie silences, blurred identities, emotional gaslighting — but ultimately lands more as a dark relationship dramedy than a true horror entry. It’s an interesting experiment, but one that left me wishing for a bit more bite beneath the meta commentary.

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Day 29 – Episode 179: Weapons (2025)

On Day 29 of The Conner & Smith Show’s 31 Days of Halloween, Ryan and I are joined by Matt to discuss Weapons (2025) — and we all absolutely loved it. Zack Cregger delivers a bold, haunting, and masterfully constructed film that blurs the lines between nightmare and social commentary. With layered performances, an intricate structure, and imagery that lingers long after the credits, Weapons cements Cregger as one of the most daring voices in modern horror. We dig into the film’s cryptic themes, the meaning of the recurring “1948” motif, and why this movie hit all of us so hard.

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Day 28 – Episode 178: Smile 2 (2024)

On Day 28 of The Conner & Smith Show’s 31 Days of Halloween, Ryan and I dive into Smile 2 — and we love every second of it. This sequel amps up everything we enjoyed about the first film: the dread, the tension, and the twisted psychological horror. Naomi Scott delivers a powerhouse performance as a pop star haunted by an unstoppable curse, and director Parker Finn once again proves he knows exactly how to weaponize sound, silence, and the uncanny smile. It’s creepy, clever, and full of unnerving surprises that kept us grinning (and squirming) the whole time.

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Day 27 – Episode 177: Ju-On: The Grudge (2002)

On Day 27 of The Conner & Smith Show’s 31 Days of Halloween, I’m flying solo to discuss Ju-On: The Grudge (2002) — Takashi Shimizu’s chilling tale of a curse born from rage that infects anyone who enters its haunted Tokyo home. While I respect the film’s legacy as one of the defining J-horror classics, I can’t help but feel a bit of déjà vu this week — so many titles on my list explore similar territory of ghosts, curses, and eerie VHS-era hauntings. Still, Ju-On remains a masterclass in atmosphere, with its disjointed storytelling, pale-faced specters, and bone-cracking sound design that creeps under your skin long after it’s over.

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