When I interviewed Alejandro Escovedo for this episode, we were sitting in the green room upstairs at the Brighton Music Hall in Boston. You can hear the band soundchecking in the background. There is no better setting to talk to a man who has spent nearly forty years traveling the world, playing guitar and singing for audiences of all shapes and size. He was gracious and thoughtful, as his songwriting implies, talking about the stories behind the songs on his latest album, Burn Something Beautiful.

Colin Quinn has just released two new one-man shows -- Unconstitutional on CD, and The New York Story on Netflix. We could use a dose of him right now. I've interviewed him a few times for the Boston Globe and always found him a reasonable observer of unreasonable times. He's bemused by politics and what it does to people. When he came to Boston in 2013 with Unconstitutional, we talked about the show, and about how partisan America is and probably always has been. This is an excerpt from that conversation.

Anyone who has Reggie Watts spin beats and jokes onstage will tell you he is a comic, musical genius. With a microphone and a couple of effects and loopers, he can build a sonic wall of melody and funny unlike anything you've heard. In 2012, I interviewed Watts about comedy and music for American Songwriter Magazine, In this excerpt, he talks about early influences, from Victor Borge to Sesame Street. Watts is a fantastic improvisor, and I enjoy the way he describes that process here.

Gould spoke to the origins of the show, and how Stan is based in large part on his father, who would probably be deeply annoyed if an ancient curse arose to interrupt the Celtics game. I've always loved a good horror comedy, and we talked a bit about the mechanics that make those two elements work so well together. Since is the Department of Tangents, we did stray from Stan a bit to talk about The X-Files and Ghostbusters reboots, and the wonderful promotional items IFC sends out to the press.

My guest for this Minicast is Peter Simeti, founder and publisher of Alterna Comics and author of the gra,phic novel The Chair, which was recently made into a film starring, in his final feature film role, Mr. Kick Ass and Chew Bubblegum, Roddy Piper. The Chair made its regional debut in a theater just outside of Boston last, and I was able to sit down with Simeti after the screening to talk about adapting the graphic novel for the big screen, and Simeti's plans for Alterna.