What's So Funny?

Mike MacDonald has been through a lot in the past two-and-a-half years. But as you can hear in this episode, he's back, baby. As sarcastic as ever! We talk about his bout with hepatitis C and subsequent liver transplant, mental illness, and heroin addiction. But there's even more talk about other things: young comics, starting out in rock clubs, touring with a band, sloppy editing in televised comedy, his asshole years, his wife, talking to him before a show. We're happy he's happy as he can be. (Listen to find out which word should be stressed.)

Orny Adams and I finally have our in-person tete-a-tete. After a story I wrote on him last year, Adams had some things he wanted cleared up and addressed. But it was all good and we had a very amiable conversation about all things comedy. We also learn about Orny's off-stage interests, his self-conscious Jewishness, and... of course, his thoughts on the documentary Comedian. It's an epic episode for an epic guy.

Art Factora is not hella Pinoy. He's just a regular, hard-working Filipino-Canadian standup comic with a day job as a producer in morning radio. But he stayed up late for us and told us about working joe jobs in between radio gigs. And he talked about his recent visit to the Philippines. Yet he had no idea where it was. Score one for the host.

Peter Greyy may be the big boss man of the Seattle and San Francisco International Comedy Competitions, but when he's not doing that, he's also a performer himself. We talk about his early days deejaying, how a sudden break-up led to standup, his theory of "Canadian competency" in comedy, and of course the competitions. There's some valuable info there for anyone thinking about entering.

Michael Teigen doesn't have much of a presence online so this will be your portal into the man. Learn about his love of animal movies, his high school musical career, his three years in New York working off-off-off-Broadway, his time spent in dinner theatre acting out skitches, the advice he gives to young improvisers, and his upcoming dog movie. It's a rip-roarin' good time.

Kevin Banner has had a good year. But that doesn't stop his angst and self-loathing. We talk about his triumphs, being special, his bad tattoo, struggles with writing, cool comics, Robin Williams, supportive relatives, the Drewski dictionary, and of course wrestling.

Alonzo Bodden once dunked on my head. But I'm a big enough man to let bygones be bygones and invite him on my show. Not a big enough man to stop the dunk, though. We talk basketball, football, jazz, racism, Miley Cyrus, Condoleezza Rice, drugs, and which was the best season of Last Comic Standing. Hint: he's biased.

Dana Alexander was the very first guest on this program back in 2004. A second episode a few years later has disappeared into the ether so this is officially her second appearance (even though it's really her third). We get caught up on her quest for world domination. She moved from Edmonton to Vancouver to Toronto to England and has performed in about 20 different countries. Pretty impressive, innit?

Sean Lecomber is a name you may not recognize, but you should. And not just because it sounds like Shaun Majumder. This episode has bonus material, thanks to an early morning call time. It's also a bit fractured. But that's part of its charm! Lecomber talks about his geopolitical cheese theory, North Korean Netflix, the possibility of throwing his comedy career away, play dates, rostering at an elementary school, being adopted, audiences in England, and tons more.

Tim Rykert joins the 5-timers' club with this appearance. And he finally has something to plug! If you've ever wondered who Jimmy the Bag was, this is the episode for you. Rykert's baby, the web series Who Is Jimmy the Bag?, is a mock-doc following the life of the world's biggest douchebag, Jimmy Sweazie, who's pretty sleazy.