Working Comic Podcast

Awesome interview with comedian Paige Weldon! We chat about starting out at UCLA doing comedy, producing a comedy album, doing a late night set, a day in the life of a comic, performing at colleges, podcasting, balancing your life, and MORE.

Paige Weldon is a writer, actor and comedian based in LA. You may know her stand-up from appearances on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Comedy Central Stand-Up Featuring, or her album Girlfriend at the Time from A Special Thing/Literally Figurative Records. She was also recently named one of Time Out LA’s top 10 comedians to watch, as well as a New York Comedy Festival Comic to Watch. As an actor, she can be seen recurring on the Paramount Network’s TV reboot of Heathers and Comedy Central’s Corporate. She also was very active in the stand up comedy club at UCLA right before I went there.

I had a great chat with Erik Escobar last week. Erik is a working comic based in LA who does a lot of road work in the Pacific Northwest. He has been seen in Last Comic Standing and a handful of Buzzfeed videos. In this interview, we talk about hetting into NACA and doing colleges, stand up comedy strategy, getting Road gigs and more!

This week I interviewed comedian, mathematician, and (unofficial) world record breaker for doing the most consecutive nights of comedy shows in a row. Sammy is incredibly talented and has a very unique set of skills. His math major background clearly influences his humor and the projects he chooses. I really love the amount of emphasis Sammy places on taking care of one's physical and mental health - two things often overlooked by busy comedians. We talk about a ton of great things during this interview including structuring your day, learning from 1001 nights of comedy, taking care of yourself, turning data into comedy, hosting a math show on a major TV network and MORE!.

I had such an insightful interview this past Tuesday with Neel Nanda. After I made him an atrocious unsweetened coconut milk latte, we got to chatting. In this interview we cover headlining and selling out, finding your niche audience, getting on TV without an agent, transitioning out of open mics and into shows, and MUCH MORE. This interview is jam packed with incredibly helpful content.

Bio: Starting comedy in Atlanta, GA and now based in Los Angeles, Neel Nanda has performed all over the country with some of comedies’ biggest acts. Neel has most recently performed stand up on ABC's JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE & has acted and performed on COMEDY CENTRAL's ADAM DEVINE'S HOUSE PARTY. In 2018 he was a featured comedian on AMAZON PRIME’S INSIDE JOKE with Asif Ali. Neel has also made notable appearances on MTV and on IFC's GARKUNKEL AND OATES SHOW. Other networks where you can catch his stand up comedy include HULU's COMING TO THE STAGE, & several episodes of the series FLOPHOUSE for VICELAND directed by Lance Bangs. Neel recently featured at Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland, the Laughing Skull Festival in Atlanta and was the runner up for the Westside Stand Up Showdown (2015) in Los Angeles. Aside from just performing standup, he currently produces a few shows in LA including "Unnecessary Evil" at the Westside Comedy Theater, which was recently named one of LA Weekly’s top 10 stand up shows. You can catch Neel every week at his show on the Westside where he has shared the stage with comedians like Hannibal Buress, Demetri Martin, Laura Kightlinger, and even Yakov Smirnoff.

I recently had a great interview with Sierra Katow! Taken from her bio: She first began performing standup at 16 and was the youngest comedian featured on season 9 of Last Comic Standing on NBC. Her standup was also featured on Last Call with Carson Daly, Laughs on Fox, and Acting Out on MTV. Her festival credits include the Seattle Int'l Comedy Competition, Boston Comedy Festival, the Women in Comedy Festival, the LA IO West Comedy Festival, the Comedy Comedy Festival, the Women In Comedy Festival, and the Funny Women Fest LA.

She's currently writing for a new show on Eko and serves as producer of the podcast Queery with Cameron Esposito. In the past, she has worked as a writers' assistant for Drop the Mic on TBS and Take My Wife on Starz and served as VP of The Harvard Lampoon.

In this interview we talk about Harvard computer science, the Harvard stand up club, being an Asian American woman in comedy, getting into coding, doing colleges, post college guilt, process of selling an animated short, getting into Laugh Factory, comedy end goals, festivals being over-hyped, morning rituals, and more.

Hi Working Comic Fans,

In this episode, I interviewed the very funny and talented Mekki Leeper. He's only 24 and he's tearing up the comedy game. His standup has been featured on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Just For Laughs: New Faces, Comedy Central’s Up Next, and he was named a Comedian You Should Know by Vulture in 2018. He also wrote for the 2017 White House Correspondents Dinner. In this episode we talk about some really cool stuff such as

dropping out of college to pursue comedy, touring different comedy scenes while in college, getting a life changing e-mail, being a stand up comic vs being a comedian, working on comedy central projects, and balancing projects and stand up.

Hello Working Comic Fans,

In this episode, I had the pleasure to sit down with RnB Comedian Morgan Jay. Morgan has been doing comedy for 11 years and musical comedy for 5. He’s performed at the 2017 SF Sketchfest, 2017/2018 Big Fire Festival, 2010 Iowa Comedy Festival, 2010 LA Comedy Festival. He won 1st Prize at the 2012 Santa Monica Comedy Fest, 1st Prize in the 2018 Ventura Comedy Festival and was 1st Runner up at the 2018 Boston Comedy Festival. Morgan is a regularly featured artist for sofarsounds.com and was one of the top booking acts for the 2017 NACA.

In this interview we talk about the song writing process, love/relationships, selling tickets, finding your niche in comedy, and more! Hope you all enjoy.

Hi everyone,

I've finally returned! This is a super fun interview. I met with Eric Moneypenny, a professional comedy writer who currently writes for AOK. You might remember him from Episode 2 with Gina Ippolito when she recommended that aspiring sketch writers take his class at the Pack Theater in LA. I took his class and got a chance to sit down with him.  We chatted about a ton of stuff including choosing your comedy focus, transitioning from stand up to writing, his Saturday Night Live audition experience, running a 10 Year Sold Out Comedy Show, touring with Drew Carey, working with Jordan Peele, and the death of cable TV.

Bio: Eric Moneypenny is a writer for AOK, former writer for Eric Andre Show, and writer/performer for The Midnight Show (TMS),[1] a popular monthly sketch comedy showcase at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater.Eric has writes both short form comedy sketches and longer form television shows. He also teaches sketch writing classes at the Pack Theater in Hollywood.

I am going to be a bit slow over the holidays with releases. I've stepped down to one every other week for the time being as I am home on the east coast. In this interview, I chatted with Michael Longfellow! Michael is 24 and has already been on Conan, placed 2nd in Laughing Skull comedy festival, helps run Arizona's Big Pine Festival, was a TBS Comic to Watch, and can be seen on Hidden America with Jonah Ray. In this interview we touch on: getting into comedy, not joining a frat, college comedy at ASU, circumventing the gatekeepers, having a relationship and doing comedy, starting over in LA, running a festival, Laughing Skull Festival and his Conan Stand Up Set.

Hi Working Comics Fans, this interview is one of the most beneficial I've had in a while. I learned SO much about marketing, applying to festivals, and structuring my comedy life. This is definitely going to be one of the top listened to episodes. I interviewed Amy Miller. Amy is a fast-rising talent on the West Coast and national scene. Originally from Oakland, California Amy found her comedy chops in the Bay Area and is still a regular at the SF Punch Line and Cobb’s Comedy Club. After a move to Portland, Amy quickly rose to the top of the Pacific Northwest comedy scene, winning Portland’s Funniest Comedian in Helium Comedy Club’s contest, as well as being voted Portland’s Funniest 2013 and 2015 in the Willamette Week.

Here are some the topics we chat about new opportunities for comedians in off seasons, marketing lessons to help comedy career, how to apply to festivals the smart way, how to make a comedy calendar, curating jokes for an album, developing the RIGHT relationships, messaging to get on shows, finding the right open mic rhythm and balancing clerical comedy work.