This Is Your Afterlife

Announcing my new one-man show and first big live show in 4 years: Here to Make Friends. In 2020, I watched 40 seasons of "Survivor" in 4 months. That + COVID alienation = Here to Make Friends. Enhancing the show is my recent revelation that at my artistic core, I'm an interviewer.

Here to Make Friends will be at the Neo-Futurist theater in Chicago September 28-October 1, 2023. Until then, I'll be having a lot of fun releasing irregular This Is Your Afterlife episodes, both in terms of when they come out and content.

If you'd like to go the extra mile in supporting the creation of Here to Make Friends, donate to my GoFundMe!

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

---

Music = Future: "Use Me" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

David Drake is a father, doer of drugs in national parks, and fantastic comedian. We talk a lot of comedy process on this episode!

Content warning: drugs, being an observer, standup comedy, major vs. minor storytelling, snapping out of limbo.

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow David on IG: @daviddrakecomedy

Find info about his shows and his upcoming special That's It!, plus links to his previous albums, at daviddrakecomedy.com.

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

---

Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Comedian and video creator Steve Tapas (Win It All, Easy) inspires a This Is Your Afterlife first: a long-form exploration of gambling addiction.

Content warning: gambling, addiction, suicidal ideation, storage facilities, Greece, homemade filo, a bench with your name on it.

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

Watch Steve's video work by following him:

@smallplates on TikTok

@smallplatesyt on YouTube

And @smallplatesig on Instagram

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

---

Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

You may hear writer and theater/performance/comedy/sound theorist Eleanor Russell, but you may not see her.

Content warning: nature vs. nurture fuckup, first time seeing Jurassic Park in the theater, childbirth but more like having a pregnant body.

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow Eleanor on Twitter: @eleanoir.

And subscribe to her Substack newsletter, outside bones!

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

---

Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Alyx Goodwin (#StopShotSpotter campaign) posits: What if you could be an organizer who is tired and, like, kinda happy?

Content warning: abusive relationship, Everything Everywhere All at Once, "ugh, adulting," parenting is easy, beer weenies.

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow the #StopShotSpotter campaign @stopshotspotter on IG and Twitter, and learn more at stopshotspotter.com.

And if you're a Chicagoan, sign the petition to cancel ShotSpotter!

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

---

Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Comedian and good buddy Lucas O'Neil (Comedy Central) shares his deep need to do things right.

Content warning: grieving correctly, mother's death, Mainers, pet boundaries, being freed of potential.

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

Go see "Lucas O'Neil: Emotional Man" at Littlefield in Brooklyn on July 24 or at the Edinburgh Fringe at Just the Tonic @ The Caves the whole month of August.

Follow Lucas @mr.lucasoneil on IG and TikTok.

Get all the Lucas info you need, include ticket links, at lucasoneil.com.

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

---

Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

A subtle snow theme in this episode with sketch comedian and improviser Karl Bradley (Cigarette Sandwich).

Content warning: suicidal consideration, black hole event horizons, wishing to be at least 200 different people, I DO NOT BELIEVE ANYONE HAS ACTUALLY EXPERIENCED DEJA VU.

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

I'll be announcing the details of my new one-man show in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

Watch Karl live on stage in Trigger Happy at the Annoyance Theatre (Wednesdays at 9:30pm), the Armando at iO (Thursdays at 8pm), and whenever he happens to understudy the current Second City main stage show, Don't Quit Your Daydream.

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

---

Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

In a This Is Your Afterlife first, comedian Ian Abramson (Conan, Gary Busey's Pet Court) brought a full-on written piece as his sideways answer to "What's your coma?" It's a description of the afterlife that's really about his dad's death, and it rings eerily familiar to my experience waking up from a coma after being eulogized on Facebook.

Content warning: parent's death, Ocean's Twelve, The Phantom Thread, winning a wedding on Instagram, DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO.

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow Ian on Instagram: @ianabramsons

He just moved back to Chicago, so catch him doing standup all around the city!

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

---

Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Actor, clown, and physical theater artist extraordinaire Molly Brennan has performed in plays at the Goodman Theatre, emceed The Fly Honey Show, and toured the world with her legendary 500 Clown troupe (defunct for some time now). She soothes me with a beautiful New Hampshire memory, talk of her atheist upbringing and DIY ethic, and only the righteous kind of bitterness.

Content warning: abandonment, COVID-19, trickle-down shittery, accessible performance venues, the Titanic submersible, advocating for others vs. yourself, Tom Petty, band vs. solo artist life.

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow Molly and her DIY music venue, The Garden, on Instagram: @monsterclowngirl and @thegardendiy.

Molly's performing as Bottom in Oak Park Festival Theatre's outdoor production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," July 13-August 19 (2023), and you can learn more at their Instagram, @oakparkfestival.

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

---

Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Jason P. Woodbury (Aquarium Drunkard, JPW) and I bring our mutual admiration society to the mics. It's an experiment. Do you like it?

Content warning: UFO/UAP sighting, moments of rupture, dental hell, pretty AND funny, evangelical Christianity, Audio Adrenaline, loop.

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow Jason @jasonpwoodbury on Twitter and Instagram.

Listen to his evocative and mysterious new album as JPW, Something Happening / Always Happening, on Bandcamp.

Listen to his fantastic and TIYA-overlapping podcast, Aquarium Drunkard - TRANSMISSIONS.

Check out his freaky media project WASTOIDS at wastoids.com.

And he has a Substack newsletter, Range and Basin!

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I discuss TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

---

Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"