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Vernon-Jackson
Long Island City
USA

Mike makes stuff. Mostly involving words, notes, thoughts, and images. Also a podcast. Enjoy. 

Episodes

A Meeting of Mind Meat

Filtering by Category: Podcast

81: Social Media Sociopaths, The Saddest Sorrority, and Mara Wilson

Mike Blejer

Listen Now

In today's episode I talk to Mara Wilson about genetics, forced maturity and the lost of family, feminism, creepy creeps on the internet, love, coping with OCD, Nightvale and growing up under the shadow of Matilda. She's a joy and the whole damn episode is a joy. 

Check her out at http://marawilsonwritesstuff.com 

Buy tickets to her live show at Union Hall, What are You Afraid Of! 

Follow her on twitter @Marawritesstuff

And catch her voice work on the beloved podcast Welcome to Nightvale.

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Editor's Note: Although we do touch upon Robin Williams, this episode was recorded prior to his passing away, and therefore we do not cover that, because if we did that would be spooky and weird. If you would like to hear an episode that touches on that, check out Episode 72, recorded live at The PIT, with Ted Alexandro, Nick Turner, and Abbi Crutchfield. 

Like the podcast? subscribe today!

MBHumor 77: ILL Literature & Dan Wilbur

Mike Blejer

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Dan Wilbur joins the podcast to discuss his book How Not To Read, the differences between being funny in writing and being funny out loud, Venn Diagrams and the role of esoterica and self-promotion and internet culture on Comedy & more. Excellent episode, excellent fellow. 

Buy his book (I own a copy and very much enjoyed it), check him out at DanWilbur.com, on twitter @DanWilbur, on his podcast Two Book Minimum and Thursdays in NY at UCBEast where he hosts Lasers in the Jungle.


75: Sensuality, Art Flakes & Heartbreak, MOVED, & Julie Sharbutt

Mike Blejer

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The multitalented Julie Sharbutt is an excellent and articulate actor, improviser, writer and producer. She and I discuss relationships, friendships, comedy, dramedy, gender politics, the necessary selfishness of artists, ego, inequality and unearned orgasms! We also discuss the excellent movie she wrote and directed, Moved, and so much else! I forgot how much I loved this episode till I went back and listened to it. Wowza!

Watch her movie on November 9th at the Big Apple Film Festival (details at http://movedfilm.com/)

Her TV appearances include a recurring role of "Stacie" on The Good Wife and Person of Interest. Films include The WeekendMaladiesThe Last Day of August, True Story, Admazons and others, and her own feature which she wrote and directed, Moved. Julie is a proud volunteer and Smart Partner at New York's 52nd Street Project. She learned to drive in 2014 (New York native), she is an accomplished horsewoman and artist (unrelated), and she likes kittens, hiking, and thunderstorms.

You can see her perform every week at The Peoples Improv Theatre with her house team Coyote and every month at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Gravid Water.

 Check her out online at 

http://www.juliesharbutt.com/

@juliesharbutt

and at http://newyork.ucbtheatre.com/talent/view/3261

http://movedfilm.com/

https://www.facebook.com/MOVEDFilm

73: Wicked Funny 2 with Lisa Romagnoli & Kevin Froleiks

Mike Blejer

Hey Great episode today featuring Kevin Froleiks (guest on episode 61: The Worst Landlord) and Lisa Romagnoli, Producer at Kornhaber Brown and owner of Notion Films. Her documentary about the New Hamshire comedy scene and NH Comedians, Wicked Funny 2 was just released on youtube.

We discuss the mindset and lifestyle differences between comedians in secondary and tertiary cities to New York or LA, the struggles of moving to a big city  when you've been a big fish in a small pond (see also: depression), comedy as an art vs. as a job vs. as a hobby, and how we should regard Comedy Hobbyists.

 Check out the film at 

www.youtube.com/user/notionFilms

Find Kevin at KfComedy.com

@lisaromagnoli

@kevinfroleiks

Episode 61: The Worst Landlord

72: Public Mourning & Robin Williams - Live Podcast

Dominic Fogarty

Abbi Crutchfield, Ted Alexandro, & Nick Turner

Abbi Crutchfield, Ted Alexandro, & Nick Turner

From Abbi's instagram (click through for link)

I had a wonderful panel on the show last night, Ted Alexandro, Abbi Crutchfield, and Nick Turner. Unfortunately the planned antics had to be put on hold to discuss the pall hanging over the comedy world by the sudden loss of Robin Williams. The conversation turned to expressions of public mourning, the impact of Williams' death, depression in comedy, and the intimacy which any performer brings to their act. These guys really made it an exceptional conversation and I thank all of them profusely. Below are some links to their excellent work which you should check out, but first is the little essay I wrote on facebook which I reference in my intro. 

It's 4:30 in the morning. I woke up from a nightmare in which I was writing a condolence letter to the family of one of my heroes; not Robin Williams, someone I know, but the mental math wasn't exactly difficult to do. I'm crying now, again, more times in one day than I have in an awfully long long time. Unlike a lot of the comedians who populate my mental constellations and facebook feed, I never met Robin Williams, and I won't pretend to have the same kind of loss that those who knew him have. Regardless of how much humanity he always brought to his work, knowing someone as a human and not as an icon is a different thing, and entails a different kind of loss. But neither will I be a cynical idiot and mistake the feelings I'm having as mere narcissism or self-indulgent emotions put on display to showcase my own depth. I grew up on Robin Williams' work. Aladdin came out in 1992 and his luminous supernova of a performance lit my 8 year old mind on fire. It seeped into every crack and planted little seeds which are still growing to this day. I would parrot lines from his 1978 Live at the Roxy special and tell other kids how he climbed up into the balcony and yelled "Look, now THOSE are the shitty seats" at the front. I can't tell you how many times I saw Mrs. Doubtfire, because you'd probably have to file some kind of retroactive child services report on my parents. I won't walk you through the rest of his filmography because I don't need to, and you know which roles probably touched me as I grew up and saw him in new ways, many of which changed the way I would think about myself as a creative mind, but the things that get in your skull when it's still soft have a way of sticking. 

The thing is this: Robin Williams has a place in my childhood psyche like nobody else in this world. His performances trace a direct nerve to feelings of innocent joy and exuberance, unburdened by the knowledge that comes with life experience, feelings which in many ways I've long since left behind. That he would die in such a way, suffering from mental and emotional anguish feels like such a violent incursion of adulthood upon youth. It feels like such a violation of innocence for him to go like this. It hurts. The irony of his playing a grown up Peter Pan is not lost on me, but this is a facebook post not a comparative american lit essay so I won't belabor the point. And this bit here actually is a bit embarrassing to admit, but I swear, when I woke up the first thing I thought was "I can't believe that if I have kids someday they're not going to get to exist in the same world as their comedy grandpa Robin." 

The people who deserve our sympathy and empathy first and foremost are those who knew and loved him as a person, and not just as an author of joy, a parent of the mind, and I'm not usually one to mourn a celebrity's passing as anything other than a tragedy for their family and a sad factoid for the internet's emotional simulator to mine it's shitty clickbait, but man, this one really hurts.

Anyway. I don't want to turn this into too much of a PSA, but please, if you're uncomfortable with the term mental illness then call it mental anguish. Call it deep emotional suffering, I don't care. Whatever you need to do to frame it, please just recognize it as a real thing, have empathy, and if you or someone you know or love is suffering, please do what you can to help. Sometimes you can't do anything no matter how much you try, but that's not an excuse to stop. It only absolves you if you keep on trying, and yes, some people are going to die trying. I didn't know Robin Williams, so I really don't know, but I'd like to think he died trying. For my part I hope I retain enough of a sliver of my innocence, no matter well hidden, even from myself, that I don't let that stop me. And if I do have tiny little splinters of innocence buried beneath my calloused skin, a lot of them are in there because when my skull was still soft, Robin Williams exploded on screen and blew them into my tiny little mind.

The National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 800-273-8255. Never be ashamed to call it, unless you're making a crank call, in which case: yes, you should be ashamed of yourself. Stop it. 

Goodnight moon. Good morning Vietnam.

 

On the Guests:
Ted Alexandro - According to Time out NY Ted is “One of the funniest comedians working today.” According to me, he's even better than that. He's been on Letterman, Conan, Ferguson, Kimmel, Comedy Central and for some reason The View. Check out his new webseries, Teachers lounge at https://www.youtube.com/user/thundershortsvideos.You can hear my one on one interview with Ted here:http://www.mikecomedy.com/mbhumor/2012/02/21/mbh-12-ted-alexandro

Nick Turner - Nick's been killing it on the NY scene for years now, has appeared on Seth Meyers, Fallon, VH1's Best Week Ever, and has the distinction of being my very first podcast guest.http://www.mikecomedy.com/mbhumor/2011/09/15/392 Witness his majestic return. 

Abbi Crutchfield - (Vh1, MTV, The Tyra Banks Show) is joining to the lineup! Check out this music video she recently did with SNL's Jay Pharoah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xfazs8qMQo&feature=youtu.be Also check Abbi out on twitter @curlycomedy