Village Video Store: Staff Selects

This is big: The Village Video Store podcast now has a theme song! And that theme song was created by this week’s guest, Joe Moore. Joe and I became friends doing comedy in Philadelphia over a decade ago and have bonded over our love of movie marathons and special theatrical experiences.

Joe’s Staff Selects are all in celebration of the Halloween season and got us talking about horror auteurs, blue-collar characters, movies to fall asleep to, destroying the bourgeoisie, little freaky monsters, and the existential questions that come from zombie movies over… and over… and over again.

Joe wrote an entire novelty Halloween song album called “The Mummy Forgot the Chips!” by Joe Moore’s Explodin’ Halloween Garage, which you can listen to and buy on Bandcamp. Support Joe! It’s a great time, guaranteed!

This episode features my long-time Philadelphia friend, comedian and television producer Rob Baniewicz. We talk all about our love of the movie marathon and try to calculate how many hours we’ve actually spent sitting next to each other in a movie theater.

Rob’s Staff Selects got us talking about existential dread, state violence against its own citizens, effective documentary techniques, shot-on-video masterpieces, still getting surprised by twists in movies, and the unexplored world of Tubi originals.

Please consider subscribing to The Village Video Store substack and rating/reviewing the podcast on Apple podcasts. Thanks for coming to the village.

This episode brings back former guest and my spookiest of friends Kait Thompson. We officially kick off the spooky season (starts the day after Labor Day) and reminisce about Halloween childhood memories and our favorite things about fall.

We then do a rundown of the Letterboxd horror movie challenge called Hooptober and offer up over SIXTY horror movie recommendations to help fill the challenge’s many different categories. You can find a full list of all the movies that we recommended on this Letterboxd list.

Stay spooky always!

This episode features actress, comedian, and host of Dirty Laundry on Dropout, Lily Du. Lily and I spent many a month together in airports while traveling for UCB’s Touring Company.

Her Staff Selects got us chatting about all the BIG topics: memory, forgiveness, aging, the inevitability of death, artistic collaboration, and power dynamics in relationships. Also, do we have the podcast’s first (good-natured) disagreement?! You’ll have to listen to find out!

You can subscribe to Dropout to watch Dirty Laundry. Do it!

This episode features writer and comedian Tao Yang of CollegeHumor and Dropout fame. We reminisce about performing improv together in New York City and then discuss his Staff Selects, which cover topics such as movie spectacles, cross-cultural comedy, disturbing anti-erotic horror, watching inappropriate movies on airplanes, and the most powerful martial art known to man: gun kata.

Please consider rating and reviewing the podcast on Apple Podcasts. It’s the simplest way to support the ultimate dream of opening a brick and mortar video store!

Today’s episode features writer, actor, and wholesome pornographer Ryan Creamer, one of the architects of Dropout’s popular game show Game Changer.

Ryan’s film selection for his Staff Selects shelf live up to his wholesome reputation and get us talking about epic sports movie moments, the line between film fiction and real life events, connecting with comedians as a teenager, the friendship of young men dealing with toxic masculinity, sneaky non-rom-coms, and quaint UK villages.

Check out Game Changer on Dropout here.

Today’s episode of the podcast features improviser and dungeon master extraordinaire, Andrew Stanton. He increases the “meaty muscle quotient” of this podcast by 500% with his staff selects, leading to an in-depth conversation of the greatest action movie star to ever exist.

Please like, rate, and review The Village Video Store Podcast on Apple Podcasts and consider subscribing to the Substack. Any money I make from the Substack goes directly to opening a brick and mortar video store.

Thank you for coming to the village.

Today’s episode features television writer, improviser, and Shaun T enthusiast Corin Wells. Make sure to check out the most recent show she worked on, Kevin, on Amazon. Corin’s Staff Selects got us chatting about brutal martial arts violence, the cultural power of music in film, childhood fantasies and magical realism, beautiful billowing fabrics, religious horror, and how falling in love with a movie character when you are young can dictate your entire love life. Don’t do this, listeners.

You can follow Corin on Instagram @charity_corin.

Today’s episode is comedian, writer, and filmmaker Rekha Shankar. Oh, she’s also my dog’s auntie (and our former roommate)! Rekha wrote and starred in Vidhya’s Guide to the Afterlife, her first feature film which is currently in post production.

Rekha’s selection of films got is talking about the power of sisterhood, childhood memories and how they change as we grow older, competition in creative work, feelings of failure, the immigrant experience, unresolved narratives, identifying with film characters, and the “confused girl” sub-genre.

You can learn more about Rekha’s film here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rekha/afterlife-2

And follow Rekha on Instagram, where she manages my dog Sassy’s Internet presence: https://www.instagram.com/rekha_s/

Today’s guest is filmmaker Lindsay Calleran, a long-time friend of mine from the New York improv world whose debut feature film, Caity, recently premiered at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival. We discuss the long journey of completing the film and the struggles of making independent film in today’s entertainment industry. Their staff selects brought up a number of topics: childhood isolation, the reconstruction of one’s relationship with parents, magical realism, realistic fantasy, the trials and tribulations of artistic collaboration, queer romance and heartbreak, and the wonder and beauty shared equally between actors Tony Leung and Steve Zahn. Spoiler alert: there is crying in this episode!

You can follow news about Lindsay’s film Caity on Instagram, including opportunities to see it in upcoming film festivals.

Thank you for coming to the village.