Vox Celeste

After 21 years, a TikTok and encouragement from my 13-year-old kid later, I unearthed a failed documentary project, Conversations with Madea, a series profiling women convicted of killing their children.  During the development of this documentary, I corresponded with several women who were serving time for infanticide as well as their families (in some cases their surviving children), attorneys and friends.

The first mother in this series is Khoua Her, a Hmong refugee living in the Twin Cities who took the lives of her six children. 

In this pilot episode I discuss Khoua’s life story, the events leading up to the deaths of her children by her own hands and our first conversation. 

The second in a two-part interview series, “The Owners: The Business of Show Business,” profiles Barbara Holliday, co-owner of Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank, California. We talk about what it takes to make it and stay in the business and how they survived the pandemic lockdowns.

The first in a two-part interview series, “The Owners: The Business of Show Business,” profiles comedy club owners; Al Martin of Broadway Comedy and Greenwich Comedy Clubs and Barbara Holliday, co-owner of Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank, California.  Both these comedy veterans join Vox Celeste, offering invaluable advice to aspiring  comedians: what it takes to make it and stay in the business and how they survived the pandemic lockdowns.

John Fugelsang has been a politically and socially relevant figure for decades; from his time at VH-1 to his current gig on Sirius XM, host of “Tell Me Everything.”   The very outspoken, Fugelsang joins Vox Celeste telling us everything about his thoughts on modern-day Christianity to “cancel culture.” 

Maryssa's successful Fashionably Funny comedy show ran for years at New York City’s Broadway Comedy club, in the before times.  Smith joins Vox Celeste discussing the trauma of growing up as a NYPD detective’s daughter, navigating Catholic high school bitches and comedy after Covid.

Colorful and unpolitically correct, Andrew Kelly looks and sounds as if he could be a bookie at a dive bar in Hell’s Kitchen not portraying historical figures in movies and television.  Kelly joins Vox Celeste to discuss how he turned his “failed” comedy career into acting-gold; sobriety and fighting cancer.  (And the time he called the cops to report a murder, his).

Del is best described as everyone’s favorite fun-loving, funky, spiritual godmother.  This delightfully, talented comedian, actress and singer is a fan favorite in, internet sensations, Bigg Jah and Minks productions playing various characters from cougar to holy roller. She joins Vox Celeste discussing how the pandemic renewed her faith.  

If hard work indeed paid off in comedy, then no doubt, returning guest, Todd Montesi would be the king of comedy.  Montesi is, hands down, one of the most prolific content creators in the New York City comedy scene.   His critically acclaimed, web series, “PN and Friends” has featured the likes of Anthony Scaramucci, Rachael Doziel and Roger Stone. 

This week on Vox Celeste we are joined by comedian and master impressionist, JL Cauvin. Half-Hatian, half-Irish, but one hundred-percent Catholic, JL opens up about his faith and the burdens that come along with being passé blanc.

The first time actor and comedian, Nicky Sunshine (FYI Network) joined Vox Celeste she was a stepmother of two and uncertain if she wanted to become a mother herself.  Two-and-a-half-years and a pandemic later, Nicky is now a mother of a newborn boy.  We discuss her devastating medical postpartum experience and her hopes, dreams and fears of raising her Black son in a hostile America.