The Lighter Side with Jay

Joe Russo is the lead singer of Almost Queen, an absolutely electrifying Queen cover band. He has an almost inhuman vocal range and a work ethic that is truly awe-inspiring. Before the pandemic hit, Almost Queen was riding the success of "Bohemian Rhapsody," playing to thousands of adoring fans in venues around the world.

The quarantine has put a hold on all of that for now, but Joe and Almost Queen will be back to melt faces before we know it. In the meantime, please enjoy this talk, in which we touched on classic rock, Joe's recent decision to finally get Netflix, our shared musical theater history, and Joe's immensely deep and endearing love for his 15 year old son.

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Music by Steve Kupp and Almost Queen
Editing by PodBear Audio

Craig Domanski, Ph.D., BCBA-D has been working with individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders using ABA for almost 20 years. He is the Clinical Director of the DATA Group, focused on parent-training and optimizing teaching conditions for learners with ASD. 

He was also the bass player in my high school band, Mr Pink. I sang and pretended to play guitar. This was an amazing talk, and parents who are struggling with their children's behavior during the pandemic (all of us) will get a ton out of it. 

Please continue to share! These stories are helping people every day, but they can't help the people they don't get to. 

Music by Steve Kupp and Mr. Pink 

Linzi works for a box company. Quite possibly the LAST profession I would have thought about when considering the effects of the pandemic. She taught me, however, that box making is not only essential, it is complicated. I was FASCINATED by this, and I think you will be too.

We also got into some heavy duty weight loss talk, bringing me back to my roots, which I always appreciate.

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Music by Steve Kupp and Remember Jones 

If ever there was a perfect union of guest and host, this would be it. Dr. Maggie Perry is a licensed psychologist who holds all of her sessions online via the Huddle.care website, which she founded. She specializes in me. (OCD and Anxiety and Stress Disorders).  I tried to trick her into giving me therapy, but we wound up having a truly enlightening conversation by accident.

Please check out Dr. Maggie's podcast, Tell Me What You're Proud of, at TellMeWhatYoureProudOf.com

Look below for all of the ways to connect with Dr. Maggie. Please, if you or someone you know needs some support, do not hesitate to reach out to her via any of these channels. 

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Connect with Dr Maggie Perry and TMWYPO:

Visit the TMWYPO Website: http://TellMeWhatYoureProudOf.com/   

Follow TMWYPO on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TellMeWhatYoureProudOf 

Follow Dr Maggie Perry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drmaggieperry 

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY4kQLJ55Upy3RxoZBWIp2w 

Like TMWYPO on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tellmewhatyoureproudof 

Follow TMWYPO on Twitter: https://twitter.com/whaturproudof  

Follow Dr Maggie Perry on Twitter: https://twitter.com/drmaggieperry  

Ken Marino is here. He is one of the founding members of The State. He has been in, written, and directed so many things that this interview was originally longer than the Director's Cut of the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy, which are incidentally the only movies he is not in.

Ken so generously gave me his time to help me get the stories of essential workers that aren't being told on the news out to as wide an audience as I can. This was a dream come true for me, and I can not ever thank him enough.

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Music by Steve Kupp and Remember Jones 

Lori DesRochers is a teacher by trade, and made the decision to homeschool her daughter many years ago. Little did she know she would be faced with the ultimate homeschooling challenge when the world shut down. She's hanging in there, though, and has some great wisdom for parents out there struggling through this (like me).

She's ALSO amazing because has dedicated many, many hours to sewing masks for her friends, family, and anyone at all in need. She has personally made over 400 masks. She is a helper and a friend.

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Music by Steve Kupp and Remember Jones 

Jared Gertner is one of the nicest human beings on planet Earth. He also happens to be a star of stage and screen, having performed on Broadway In The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Book of Mormon and appeared in guest starring roles on such shows as Modern Family, Supernatural, Mom, Agent Carter, and more.

He and his husband Jeffrey are raising their adorable son in LA, and we discussed the unique challenges of doing so in a pandemic. We talked about our shared musical theater history and his current career, he told stories about Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and we comiserated about our shared inability to not consume an entire box of cereal in one sitting

I love Jared, and I loved this conversation.

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Music by Steve Kupp and Remember Jones

Remember Jones/Anthony D'Amato is a touring musician, bandleader, and philanthropist. He arranges some of the most original, inspiring covers of popular music you will ever hear, and has quite a few tasty originals as well, like the new song Save the Planet, which you can stream or get free with the purchase of a t-shirt, with ALL profits going to Get Us PPE, an organization working to provide PPE to essential workers.

He is also my friend, and former partner in eating full pizzas at 3 am. You have heard his music on this show. We talked about what it's like adjusting to the pandemic from a creative standpoint, the craziness of the world, and, of course, snacks.

He is performing live streams every Thursday in May. THAT'S TODAY. WATCH AT 7 PM

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Music by Steve Kupp and Remember Jones (duh)

Dan Peck and I went to high school together. One time I slit his throat wide open on stage. It was a whole thing. Now he is a writer for Family Guy, which you may have heard of. He also has a podcast called The Game of Rassilon, A Doctor Who Roleplaying Podcast.

You may have guessed that we took some of our time together here to nerd out about pop culture, our musical theater past, and, my FAVORITE nerding out topic, Video Games.

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Music by Steve Kupp and Remember Jones 

Eileen Shaklee is an unlikely hero. Her blog, Autism with a Side of Fries, is read by tens of thousands of parents every day. Her relatable, no-nonsense style has really struck a chord with the special needs community, and also with this guy right here.

We had a phenomenal chat about her journey, as well as the issues of parenting a child through a pandemic, with or without special needs.

Find Eileen on Instagram, Twitter, and all the other things.

Please continue to listen and spread the word!

Music by Steve Kupp and Val Emmich