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ArtsPerforming Arts

Ian Talks Comedy

Ian Fermaglich

Join NYC teacher and former stand up comedian Ian Fermaglich as he talks comedy with some of comedy's best.

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  • 27 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 52 min
  • English

Episodes 27

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Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • May 30 · 1 hr 3 min

    Kevin Kelton (2021 Interview with Better Audio)

    Kevin and I discuss Face the Music; Fridays; Twilight Theater; Laugh Trax; No Soap, Radio; The Jeffersons; getting SNL; Eddie Murphy's showcase; getting stuff on his second show; Subliminal Advertising Sketch, Lie Detector Sketch; Chess Club Coach sketch; Trivial Pursuit sketch; being locked in Dick Ebersol's office to write Eddie Murphy's Christmas 1984 show; Christopher Guest Auctioneer Sketch, I Am Also the World, Prison Rape Sketch; Women in Prison tv show; Night Court and favorite episodes; Boy Meets World and the genius of Will Freidle; Townsend TV; Boogies Diner; Girlfriend Guy; BIFL; and what he's doing now.

  • S1 · E315
    May 23 · 59 min

    Ross Shafer (Almost Live!/Late Show/Match Game)

    Ross Shafer joined me to talk about watching Rusty Nails as a kid; flipping bikes, cars, houses, and businesses; college football; owning a stereo / pet store named Woofers and Tweeters; hamster drag racing; going to a comedy club when he had an ulcer; seeing there was a science there; trying it and getting good enough to win Showtimes Comedy Laugh Off; having a day job and not being able to move to LA; bombing on Alan Thicke's Canadian talk show; pitching Almost Live!; getting the show on the air on the fly; creating fame for little towns near Seattle; Louie, Louie campaign makes it a hit, but no one wants to syndicate; gets job to host Late Show but has to cancel remaining gigs; writers to Johnny Carson; Writer's Strike causes theme shows like TV reunions; Ozzy Osbourne; Hollywood Squares & Howard Stern; finding out Late Show is cancelled that morning; getting Match Game; memorable trip; Sally Struthers and Charles Nelson Reilly; Iraq War preempts show and ratings dive; began doing corporate gigs; his WOW versus POW theory; the book Love, Johnny by Mark Malkoff

  • S1 · E315
    May 16 · 56 min

    Peter Lefcourt (author The Deal & The Dreyfus Affair, writer / producer Cagney & Lacey)

    Peter Lefcourt joined me to discuss listening to Jean Shepard, his first TV, joining the Peace Corps and going to Togo; living in Paris three months a year; coming back and teaching in the Dalton School; being a cab driver and studying dialogue; becoming a professor at Marlboro College in Vermont; wrote a TV movie that sold and didn't get made; writing pornography and turning a story into a TV movie with Barbara Eden and Barbara Feldon; early freelance jobs; Eight is Enough; Dick Van Patten and the ponies; Rivkin the Bounty Hunter TV movie; American Dream; Scarecrow & Mrs. King; pilot Bulba with Jeff Altman & Bill Hicks; Devlin Connection with Rock Hudson; Cagney & Lacey, his 1st episode "Jane Doe #37" nominated for Writer's Guild Award; wins Emmy in 1985; creating I Had Three Wives and casting Victor Garber; working on Our Family Honor; writing Monte Carlo for Joan Collins and George Hamilton; Studio 5B; writing his first novel The Deal, a harsh satire on the film industry; his second novel, The Dreyfus Affair, about a homosexual love story on an MLB team; optioned three times and now being looked at by Timothy Chalamet; Di & I a fictional love story between Princess Diana and a Jewish screenwriter; working on Due South with Paul Haggis; The Woody satirizing Bob Packwood; Abbreviating Ernie about rough sex that leads to death and dismemberment; his TV satire Beggars and Choosers he co-created with Brandon Tartikoff; Eleven Karens about a man who had relationships with 11 women named Karen; Manhattan Beach Project, a satire on reality TV; his love of dark humor

  • S1 · E313
    May 9 · 57 min

    Marc Weingarten (comedian, owner of the Ice House 1978 - 1982)

    Marc Weingarten joined me to discuss putting color strips on a black and white TV, trying to watch TV with Orthodox Jewish parents; moving from NY to Miami to Israel to California; his first time on stage; learning how to be a standup; producing Count Basie's final album; getting a job at the Laff Stop; investing 1% in that club; hearing the Ice House was for sale and buying it with three partners for $67,000; history of the Ice House; Pat Paulsen; seeing green George Lopez; Gallagher; David Letterman; producing Rick Dees comedy shows and writing an opening for Rick to be funny; sold out 6000 seats in 10 days; doing sports with Sweet Dick Whittington; getting Rudy Tellez as his manager; being a writer on Into the Night when Brad Garrett hosted; producing the Super Bowl of Comedy; creating the Uproar comedy label; becoming a Grammy voter; memories of Richard Jeni, Jay Leno, Harry Anderson, Jay Johnson, Marcia Warfield, Robin Williams, Ben Powers, Howie Mandel; what makes the best comedians; Woody Allen; George Carlin's friendship and advice; Bill Cosby; being bumped by Rodney Dangerfield.

  • S1 · E312
    May 2 · 1 hr 5 min

    Rebeca Arthur Golden (Perfect Strangers, Scrooged)

    Rebecca Arthur Golden joined me to discuss her love of Lucille Ball; her current dogs; her beloved dog Emmy who was her dog on Perfect Strangers; being a born performer and always knowing she would be on TV; playing a stewardess; went to NYU; supported herself as a bank teller, then infiltrated high schools for a private eye; worked the Robert Durst case; being on Search for Tomorrow; getting a pilot Anything But Love with Vicki Lawrence and Marsha Warfield; couldn't get on Super Password but next year was the celebrity; Win, Lose or Draw and March Game; doing a Rodney Dangerfield special; getting Perfect Strangers; learning co-star Melanie Wilson's dad is Mr. Whipple; Bibibopka episode; doing an episode when Bronson couldn't be there; guesting on Johnny Carson, being scared and answering "the laundry" when asked what was next; Circus of the Stars; getting strep during rehearsals of trapeze and being scared on tape night; being on the last Battle of the Network Stars; ABC winning though cast was undersized; Cosell calling her race; winning the Tug O' War; improvising a scene in Scrooged with Bill Murray; leaving show business to raise a family; going back to do a short film and a play; working as a spokesperson for Cabi; charity work; being a class mom and making DVD's on school shows for all the parents.

  • S1 · E311
    April 25 · 53 min

    Greg Evigan (BJ and the Bear, My Two Dads)

    Greg Evigan joined me to discuss writing the theme to My Two Dads; watching Honeymooners; piano lessons; high school bands; winning an Award for Hello Dolly in high school; being i Jesus Christ Superstar & Grease on Broadway and road; being cast in A Year at the Top with Paul Shaffer; All that Glitters; his memorable two-part One Day at a Time; BJ and the Bear not getting a DVD release; driving miles per episode; clapboard motivated Sam; finding out about the 7 Lady Truckers; Lady Truckers do Carson - he gets guest host; Masquerade; Kirstie Alley; participating in the BOTNS; being the 1988 captain; Howard Cosell; winning with Robert Conrad as captain; performing on and with Pink Lady; singing with Valerie Landsburg on Fame; performing My Two Dads theme on an episode; working with Davey Jones & Bobby Rydell; cliffhanger ending; Chuck Lorre = physical comedy; crazy 80s fashion; married 47 years; kids and grandkids around the world; daughter a humanitarian in Zimbabwe; son Jason, a Grammy winning songwriter - producer; doing three Aaron Spelling shows in three years; Pacific Palisades; working; with David Steinberg; doing General Hospital; writing classical music and performing with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

  • S1 · E310
    April 18 · 42 min

    Maggie Wheeler ("Janice from Friends", Seinfeld, Curb)

    Maggie Wheeler joined me to discuss 60's sitcoms; her parents not wanting her to pursue acting; her inspiration; Anna Deveare Smith; being 18 in the late 70's; Studio 54; MTV voice-overs; Rubinoos commercial; her audition for The New Show; her cheerleader characters; attempting to break dance with Penny Marshall and the Breakers; working with her idols; Lorne sends her audition tape to Rankin-Bass; hired on cartoons Silver Hawks& The Comic Strip to do most voices; Jonathan Kaufer casts her in Soup for One; Henry Jaglom hires her for New Years Day; her co-star is ex boyfriend, David Duchovny; wins Best Actress at a film festival; going on Johnny Carson; Dream On; becoming friends with Brian Benben, David Crane & Marta Kauffman; guesting in Emmy-winning Seinfeld ep "The Fix UP'; Larry David says Top 5 episode; Danger Theater; X-Files; being first one hired and first fired on Ellen; Janice's voice and laugh; writing her in 8 months pregnant in an episode; getting fired from Suddenly Susan; Janice's entrances were hidden; being second for wife on Everybody Does Raymond and being given a recurring role; Parent Trap; "Palestinian Chicken" episode of Curb; her recent double guest starring on Bob's Burgers

Showing 21–27 of 27 episodes