This Is Your Afterlife

Neil Bardhan (First Person Arts, Broad Street Review) is a flaneur with a taste for life's simple pleasures. He tells me about the childhood difficulties that shaped this point of view.

Content warning: medical trauma, standstill traffic, sandwiches, book management systems, the fancy French words for the kind of guy Neil is.

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

Follow Neil @knilegram on IG, and sign up for his delightful newsletter.

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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

Kirk Rawlings from the excellent, genre-mashing band Courtesy joins me to talk about a moment that pulled the rug out from under his childhood and the game-changing depression treatment so many of us are curious about. Don't be fooled by this description, there are laughs.

Content warning: depression, suicide, Trump, ketamine, plumbing.

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

Follow Courtesy on Instagram: @courtesy_idmatic and check out their music on Bandcamp (their newest album, Check the Milk, is so good).

Learn more about Kirk's new project, Beige on Beige, at beige.band, and save their first single, "C'mon," out on April 7, 2023!

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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

The drummer formerly known as the rapper J-Zone, Jay Mumford, tells me a story he's told many times: how he changed courses musically in his mid-30s. But this time he gets meta. I ask him if he likes talking about this! He reflects on nostalgia writ large and how it plays out in Instagram stories when people use old songs of his he hates. And we frame it all in terms of his switch being an ultimate coma moment.

Content warning: chronic migraines, quitting, starting over, Questlove, the hell of social media, being known for what you want to be known for.

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

Follow Jay on Instagram: @jzonedontig, Twitter: @jzonedonttweet, and Facebook: @jaymumfordmusic.

Listen to the Du-Rites on Bandcamp and Spotify, and visit Jay's website for more info, jaymumfordmusic.com.

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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

NEW PODCAST ALERT! Enjoy the first episode of Abandoned Building, my solo podcast to generate and test material for my third one-man show. All episodes will live on Patreon, and I'm hoping for feedback from you all. Otherwise, it's less testing material and more throwing material down a well.

Here are the steps into Abandoned Building:

1. Listen to the episode.

2. If it's fun for you, email me at [email protected] with ANY feedback. And/or join me at patreon.com/davemaher to hear every episode and comment as part of the Patreon community.

2A. Want to join the fun but not sure how to give feedback? Here are some questions to knock loose ideas.

• What parts stick with you?
• What made you laugh?
• What made you uncomfortable, and why?
• What did you want more of?

3. If you enjoyed this process, repeat with the next episode!

I'm trying to "black out" as much as possible during these shows, so I may not preview content in show notes. But take my word for it, this first episode will not get you fired.

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Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

"What if you fell in love with that?" Winslow Dumaine asks about all the feelings there are to feel other than happiness. The comedian, illustrator, writer, podcaster, and game and merch designer (what can't he do?!) is an artist of a type that's somewhat rare for This Is Your Afterlife: someone who takes death and darkness as their explicit subject matter.

Content warning: turning pain into art, breakups, long crushes, tarot, metal, ADHD Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria.

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

Follow Winslow on Instagram, @calculations, and Twitter, @winslowdumaine.

You can find links to Winslow's stand-up, merch, and dates to playtest his new tabletop game, The Restless, at linktr.ee/Winslowdumaine.

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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

It's always nice when a guest is as afraid of death as I am. Bona fide magician Rebecca Spectre, who I know from her time as a standup comedian, joins me for the rare in-person conversation about how she'd like to be remembered and her well-examined reasons for performing magic.

Content warning: magic, the corn kid, self-skepticism, egotistical funeral.

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

Follow Rebecca on Instagram to find out about her shows and classes at @rebeccaspectremagic. And you can book her for private events by visiting her website, rebeccaspectremagic.com.

Catch her live this month (March 2023) at the Chicago Magic Lounge on March 16, 17, 19, 21, and 28!

And see me at my first live event in 17 months this Friday, March 17, 2023! I'll be talking to previous TIYA guest Madeline Lane-McKinley about her book, Comedy Against Work, at Pilsen Community Books at 7pm.

Subscribe to my newsletter, Definitive Answers, for weekly personal and culture essays, plus music recs. And follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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

At one point during recording, after a pee break, Nicholas Krgovich sat back down and told me, "I'm having fun." It was a tender moment, and the songwriter, singer, and musician brought that sweetness and curiosity to our entire conversation. He's a gem of a man who makes heart-opening music.

Content warning: hating yourself for being gay, completely uncomplicated nap, accidentally paving the way for your future happiness.

You can hear the pee break moment in the full convo at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow Nicholas on Instagram, @nicholas_krgovich, and listen to and buy his music on Bandcamp. I recommend starting with the recent Shabason & Krgovich record, At Scaramouche, before his newest, Ducks, comes out THIS FRIDAY (I am assuming the week in which you're listening), March 10!

Subscribe to my newsletter, Definitive Answers, for weekly personal and culture essays, plus music recs. And follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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

Strong contender for Funniest Person on Earth Martin Urbano (This Fool, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Chris Gethard Presents) shares the performance situation that would be his hell, his desire to die in the apocalypse with everyone else, and the ups and downs of chasing your dreams.

Normally, I save process talk for the full convos on Patreon, and there's certainly more of it there, but I had to include some of it in the main episode too. It's a joy hearing Martin talk about doing research for his character and the deliberateness of his satirically offensive act.

Content warning: that Roseanne set making the rounds on Twitter, Pixar's Coco as existential balm, fight, drinking, Madame Tussauds.

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

Follow Martin @martinurbanojr on Instagram and TikTok, plus @MartinUrbano on Twitter.

Watch Martin's wonderful Kimmel set.

And check out his live dates, including upcoming shows in Brooklyn and Vermont, here.

Subscribe to my newsletter, Definitive Answers, for weekly personal and culture essays, plus music recs. And follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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

Deep AND fun, this conversation with saxophonist and prolific collaborator Patrick Shiroishi is everything a This Is Your Afterlife episode is meant to be. For those counting, this makes 2 of 4 Fuubutsushi members I've had on the show.

Content warning: Japanese internment camps, Taco Bell, ancestors, therapy, questionable shave, the Get Up Kids.

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

Check out Patrick's website for tour dates, including a support tour for Emma Ruth Rundle in March and April.

You can find his many albums on his Bandcamp, including Oort Smog's Every Motherfucker Is Your Brother and his recent ambient/electronic record on Touch Music, Evergreen, which includes field recordings from the cemetery where many of his ancestors are buried.

Follow Patrick on IG, @patrickshiroishi, and read the great NPR Music feature to learn more about him.

Subscribe to my newsletter, Definitive Answers, for weekly personal and culture essays, plus music recs. And follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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

Marcella Arguello no longer fears death, and she tells me (and you) why. Her first standup special—the loose, silly, direct, and original Bitch, Grow Up!—is out now on HBO Max. It's a blast, and so is this conversation.

Content warning: cancer, dead parents, reality TV hatred, a cruise, postmortem truth serum, inspiration from MF DOOM.

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus audio, including my new solo podcast, Abandoned Building. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

Watch Bitch, Grow Up!, and listen to the meditation tape Marcella made with previous TIYA guest SHOWYOUSUCK and which we reference at the end of the conversation, Motivational Monday Meditations with Marcella Marguello.

Subscribe to my newsletter, Definitive Answers, for weekly personal and culture essays, plus music recs. And follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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