The inaugural episode of this podcast. (Originally “What’s Your Yarn Worth? w/ Andy Farnsworth.”) An honest, unvarnished conversation with James Greco: painter, inner monologue coach, and person I respect and love a whole lot.
There’s literally zero production on this first episode. Just a straight, conversational document. Pretty much every instinct I had at the time told me not to put this out there, but my friend Tasha listened to it and told me not to trust my instincts. It’s advice that served as a guide for all the episodes that have followed. Anti-instincts.I’d say this episode is intense but what’s intense you know? I probably wouldn’t listen to it in front of kids, but maybe you’re running some kind of experiment. Here you go.
You can check out James Greco’s work here
[Correction: Just FYI I got a little carried away in this one when I was talking about the baby-smuggling grade school teacher. I actually didn’t have her as a teacher. It was my sister that had her. Also, the teacher in high school I was talking about was actually “Mrs. Mishler” not Mueller. Don’t know why I said those things.]
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SN2:EP4 “Emotional Graffiti”
@TimRacine and I on: cats that try to separate us from our lovers; frozen gummy bears; and lying about Pantera. Also, former NPR reporter Athena Desai ties a bow on a 14-year-old audio clip mystery I’ve been trying to get my head around since I left WBUR in 2002. -
SN1:EP7 “1-800-BAD-TOUCH”
It’s impossible to tell the story of how I know comedian and psychologist Marc Gerber without getting into a host of sordid and vulnerable-making trauma from my past. He offered some perspective back in June that changed my life and comedy.Gerber is an atypical hybrid of a professionally funny and employably empathetic person. He and I met when I performed on a show at the PIT called Relationshit where he served as on stage therapist for a story I told about a piece of material about my own childhood sexual abuse. In this episode I play the recording of that performance along with another version I did more recently at a recovery show in New Jersey. The revision of this bit over time is the best example I have of how my perpetual over-disclosure has unintentionally helped saved my life.
He also opens up about his own struggles and offers a much needed and practical solution for quelling loneliness, a call to 1-800-Contacts.
Check out his weekly show at Comic Strip Live on Mondays called Three Day Weekend.
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SN2:EP5 “Ear Hustling”
A harrowing camp story and comedian and actor Sharron Paul @Sharronica. You might recognize her once we start talking. She’s the voice of the mom, Francine, on the kids cartoon Fanny Fun Facts on Amazon, and she’s also in a webseries called “GhostedBusters.” Sometimes I get a little nervous talking to guests, especially the part right there at the beginning. The hello. The handoff from being alone to being in someone’s company. But I was good with Sharron and we had a pretty epic conversation. Here’s us talking back in May in Prospect Park. Have a good 4th!
