Tight Five

My guest today is SNL Director Paul Briganti. We talk about how he got into comedy, learning the basics of directing at College Humor, and how he got SNL. He talks about some of his favorite moments at SNL like working with Eddie Murphy and directing the famous joker sketch. We also discuss how COVID impacted the SNL production process.

My guest today is writer and performer Langan Kingsley. We talk about how she got started in improv, working through the UCB scene, her work at Funny or Die, and her experience working in sitcoms like Corporate and The Goldbergs.

My guest today is writer and director Katy Yeiser. Katy was the former video director at The Onion and was one of the creators of the acclaimed A Very Fatal Murder podcast. She then went on to direct commercials and work on the Team Coco hit audio drama Frontier Tween. We talk about Katy's early interest in comedy growing up and her short career as an education reporter during which she broke a real scandal that led to a greedy superintendent getting fired. She talks about getting a job on the Onion News Network and working her way up through The Onion, the process of creating a Very Fatal murder and what it’s been like the past few years directing and working in audio drama.

My guest today is stand up comic and writer Raj Desai. Raj has written for Triumph the Insult Comic Dog’s 2016 Election Special, Sarah Silverman’s I Love You America, The White House Correspondents Dinner, and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. We talk about Raj’s start in comedy and what it was like working on all of these cool projects. Follow the pod on twitter @tight5comedypod and follow me on twitter @krahman333. For any other aspiring comedy writers, you can email in to [email protected] and share your aspirations and progress in comedy, or what episodes of the podcast you’ve enjoyed and I can give you a shoutout in future episodes.

I apologize for the late upload, I’ve been super busy these past few weeks, but I have a ton of exciting guests, like my guest for today’s episode Conan writer Skyler Higley (@skyler_higley) We talk about how Skyler got his start in comedy, what it was like growing up black and Mormon, his time at The Onion and at Conan.

My guest today is Tonight Show writer Becky Krause (@beckyyk). We talk about her unconventional path to the Tonight Show, her love of making videos, her favorite tonight show segments and what she’s learned during her years at the show. 

My guest today is improviser and actor Thomas Whittington (@tommy_chi). For the 20 or so of you who listen to this podcast regularly, you probably listened to my interview with Thomas’s wife Jen Spyra. I discovered Thomas on YouTube by watching clips from his character reels. I really loved the darkness and absurdity he brought to his characters. We talk about how he got his start in improv and what it was like working his way through the Chicago comedy scene, then moving back and forth from LA back to Chicago and then finally to New York. He talks about the various characters he worked on in preparation for his Just For Laughs audition, how he approaches doing impressions of famous comedians like John Mulaney and Pete Davidson, and his work in voiceover on Our Cartoon President.

My guest today is Onion staff writer Matt Crowley (@MatthewPCrowley). We talk about how he got his start in college writing short comedic plays, how he got his position at The Onion and how he was able to move up the ladder from apprentice to staff writer. We also talk about what it was like working at The Onion in the insane time that was the Trump presidency and the ongoing pandemic, as well as his expectations for the Biden presidency.

My two guests today are Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw, a writing team for the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. They’ve also written stuff for McSweeney’s and The New Yorker. We talk about how the two met in college and became a writing team and their viral speech before Hillary Clinton spoke at their graduation. Ben and Rebecca have a really interesting experience breaking into the industry because they got to navigate meetings and packets as a team. We also talk a lot about their time at Fallon, some of their favorite sketches,  the celebrities and politicians they got to work with, and how quarantine affected production. You can follow Ben on twitter at @benkgold and you can follow Rebecca on twitter at @RebeccaBShaw.