Working Comic Podcast

Hi Everyone! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Break. I've been out here freezing my ass off on the East coast and finally got around to posting the latest episode. This is a great one and is the FINAL installment of me interviewing members from the Dead Kevin sketch group. Jack Robichaud got Just For Laugh's in 2014, does stand up around Los Angeles, and has some cool experience in the industry. Here are some things we talk about: getting in just for laugh's, finding the perfect 7 minute set, getting the right manager, submitting to (and winning) Series Fest, balancing a job and stand up, making money in comedy, and making comedy shows in LA.

Hey Working Comic Fans, sorry for the delay! I've been super busy moving into my new place and balancing several shows that I'm producing. I really think that this episode was worth the wait as I had the opportunity to interview Nick Rutherford. Nick is one of the original members of Good Neighbor Stuff, a viral sketch comedy group with a cult following. This group featured Nick Rutherford, Kyle Mooney, and Beck Bennett who all went on to work for Saturday Night Live. I was really excited to do this interview because Good Neighbor Stuff honestly formed a lot of my humor in High School and College. All of my friends and I were obsessed with their videos. I DEFINITELY recommend checking them out.

Here are some things we talk about: Pomodoro Technique for productivity, Taking a step back for appreciation, How 'Good Neighbor Stuff' formed, Cold Calling Colleges, How Good Neighbor Made Sketches, Growth Hacking, The 'Good Neighbor Stuff' cult following, Sketch writing to tv writing, Writing for SNL, Writing for Adult Swim and How writing HAPPENS!

In this fun interview, I talked with my good friend Salma Zaky. She is the head of Shenanigans's Stand Up Comedy division at UCLA and has produced tons of huge shows. She's performed all over LA and SF and is definitely up and coming! In this conversation, we talks about doing comedy in college, how and why we got into comedy, producing smart shows, approaching mics efficiently and much more!

Hello Working Comic Fans! I am super excited to share with you one of my FAVORITE recent interviews. I had the chance to meet with Jon Rudnitsky, a former cast member of Saturday Night Live! Jon was a featured player in SNL's 41st season that aired 2015-16. I met Jon a couple of years ago outside the Hollywood Improv and I remembered him being such a cool guy. At the time, he was most notable for winning the 2012 UCLA vs USC Laugh Bowl and then going on to star in some hilarious viral videos. When he got onto SNL, I was absolutely mind blown and extremely impressed. It's not usual to see someone YOU KNOW get on the most coveted comedy TV show of all time. Here are some of the many things you can expect to hear about: going from a USC grad to SNL to movies, how Jon got an SNL audition, what the SNL Audition is like, what it's like to work as a performer for SNL, the Hulu mini series he worked on with George Clooney, and how to be resilient!

In this episode, I sat down with viral YouTuber Lucas Cruikshank, the guy who created FRED. He had the first channel to get 1 million+ subscribers on YouTube and starred in three Nickelodeon Fred movies (with John Cena playing his Dad). These days Lukas is able to completely design his daily schedule and live off of the royalties from his two YouTube channels and movies. In this episode we talk about:

- The origin of Fred

- How to make money on YouTube

- Making a movie

- Growing up as Fred

- Where he's at now

Hey Working Comic Fans, this week I had the opportunity to meet with Richard Sarvate. Richard is a fantastic up and coming comic and former Yahoo Software Engineer who made a name for himself in San Francisco and Los Angeles for creating the extremely popular show "The Set Up." This is one of the BEST SELLING and most popular shows in all of San Francisco. He also produces a big show called Comedy Vs Nerds where comedians do jokes about the tech scene (he graciously gave me a spot!). In this interview we dive into the following topics:

- Cryptocurrency

- Near death experience

- Taking breaks from comedy

- Meditation (Power of Now)

- Yahoo Engineer to Comedian

- Making Money While Doing Comedy

- Investing

- Producing Successful Shows

- Starting your own comedy club

This is a special interview with my good friend Jesse Warren. Jesse is a relatively new comic to the scene making ripples in the Seattle scene. He is a regular at Laugh's Comedy Club and the Comedy Underground. He also produces a popular show called "Off the Top." Formerly software engineer at Microsoft and SpaceX, Jesse now spends his time focusing on stand up comedy full time. In this interview we talk about our formative years, self help, and some impactful books that have positively influenced our lives.

Hello Working Comic Fans! I interviewed Brian Moses, the host of Comedy Central's hit show "Roast Battle." We talk about a TON of super cool stuff. In this episode, I learned that he essentially CREATED THE ROAST BATTLE FORM! Wow, that's huge. This interview is super informative and I attempted to break it up by topic below if you want to skip ahead to different parts. Hope you enjoy!

Here's what we cover:

- Pornhub Awards (0:50)

- Formation of the Roast Battle (~10:00)

- Selling a show to Comedy Central (~15:05)

- Financial success from selling a show (~17:00)

- Selling shows: Major Networks vs Cable (~17:30)

- Getting Jeff Ross involved (~23:20)

- Scene Hacking and maximizing stage time (~27:45)

- Rising popularity of roast battling and roast structure (~31:00)

- How to host effectively (~39:45)

- General Advice for New Comics (~48:50)

- Get involved with Roast Scene (~54:20)

I interviewed Fahim Anwar! He is really cool and shares a ton of wisdom from his experience starting stand up in college (at UW) to becoming a Mechanical Engineer at Boeing in Long Beach to making it big in LA and getting an hour stand up special and, as of recently, an hour sketch comedy special! From his bio:

"Fahim Anwar is a Los Angeles-based standup comedian, actor and writer. Formerly an aerospace engineer at Boeing, Fahim traded the cubicle for the stage and has never looked back. His parents however plead with him to look back nearly every day. "Is comedy worth throwing your life away for?" Fahim says, yes!

Off the momentum of his one hour special THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS, The New York Times listed Fahim as a "Most Promising Future Star." He's appeared on CONAN, LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS and performed at the prestigious Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal. His recent FILM/TV credits include WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT, NEIGHBORS, DRUNK HISTORY, CARMICHAEL SHOW and SUPERIOR DONUTS to name a few. Currently, Fahim is serving as head writer and starring on a sketch show for Comedy Central with his comedy group (GOATFACE) which includes Hasan Minhaj from THE DAILY SHOW. It is slated to air sometime in 2018."

In this conversation we talk about:

- Engineer to comedian

- Sketch group "Goat Face" from YouTube to Comedy Central

- Starting out in Seattle and getting a ton of stage time

- Establishing yourself in a bigger scene

- Editing and becoming great

- Changing comedy landscape

- Getting yourself to write

In this episode, I interview the very talented character comic, actor, and comedian Brent Pella. His comedy sketches and music videos have gained millions of views around the world and have been featured on Funny or Die, College Humor, BroBible, The Chive, and Worldstar HipHop.

In this episode we talk about:

- NACA College Shows

- Doing his first hour

- Comedy and Health

- WHERE to put characters in comedy?

- UCB and Groundlings Improv

- Making a stand up cartoon (Dane Cook style)