CW: Suicide, School shooting

Visionary comedian, and actor in “Honey Boy” (Prime) and “Concrete Cowboys” (Netflix), Byron Bowers once moved to LA and slept in his car while he tried to make stand-up work. In this live special from South By South West, he joins us to talk about processing trauma; finding true freedom onstage and emotional freedom among his family; how he apprehends his comic and acting technique; and being so poor people think you’re wealthy…

25 mins of extra content available exclusively to the Insiders Club include Byron on his relationship to hope, his experience at Old Rope in London, and how he avoids feeling like a v victim of racism in Hollywood.

Go to www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders for this and much more, including the exclusive Insiders Q&As with Nish Kumar, James Acaster and Fern Brady and the incredible “self-help for comedians” special with Amanda Donnet.

Catch up with Byron:

TW/IG: @ByronBowers
www.byronbowerslive.com

Byron’s new special “Spiritual Negro” is in the edit, so watch out for a release soon!

Everything Stu's up to

This podcast is @ComComPod on Twitter and Instagram
www.comedianscomedian.com

Find out everything Stu’s up to at www.stuartgoldsmith.com

Stu offers remote and in-person talks to business, distilling insights from over 400 comics on cultivating resilience and the ability to bounce back, to all levels from C-suite to team-members.

“Stuart was brilliant; he nailed the brief, and the balance of meaningful content and humour was perfect for our audience.” Jo Matkin, CEO Celsus Group

LISTEN HERE

Filed Under: Acting, Audiences, Byron Bowers, Concrete Cowboys, Honey Boy, Interview, Robin Williams, Stage Persona, Success, SXSW, TV, TV Comedy, USA

We find the irrepressible Slim at a crossroads in his long career. After three decades as “the King of Black British comedy”, this very funny and astonishingly likeable comic is crossing over to the mainstream with the help of new management and a new game-plan.

From possibly the world’s most terrifying first gig - shoved onstage by a comedian friend at a sold-out Hackney Empire - to just recently selling out the London Palladium by himself, we talk about faking it til you make it, serving and deserving the community, and the tension between his natural humility and the swagger required to kick down doors…

20mins of extra content available exclusively to the Insiders Club include Slim on whether connecting with audiences is a teachable skill, a lovely analogy about comics as salespeople and what represents a “good sale”, whether there’s a downside to doing your learning on a different circuit, and the decisions that went into his Live At The Apollo set.

Go to www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders for this and much more, including the exclusive Insiders Q&As with Nish Kumar, James Acaster and Fern Brady and the incredible “self-help for comedians” special with Amanda Donnet.

Catch up with Slim

IG: @slimcomedian
Twitter: @SLIMcomedian

Everything Stu's up to

This podcast is @ComComPod on Twitter and Instagram

www.comedianscomedian.com

Find out everything Stu’s up to at www.stuartgoldsmith.com

Stu offers remote and in-person talks to business, distilling insights from over 400 comics on cultivating resilience and the ability to bounce back, to all levels from C-suite to team members.

“Stuart was brilliant; he nailed the brief, and the balance of meaningful content and humour was perfect for our audience.” Jo Matkin, CEO Celsus Group

LISTEN HERE

Filed Under: Age, Audiences, BBC, Bob Mills, Dave Chappelle, Def Comedy Jam, Def Jam, Edinburgh, Festival, Interview, Kevin Hart, Live At The Apollo, Mainstream, Richard Pryor, Risk, Robin Williams, Stage Persona, Success, TV, Up The Creek, Urban Circuit

With a dedicated crowd of 650K YouTube subscribers, Foil Arms & Hog are a live sketch act who also do internet videos, and not “YouTubers” like you thought...

We explore how these lovely men have spent a decade at the Edinburgh Fringe entirely on their own terms, and why they aspire to “Moneyball” but don’t know their arse from their SEO.

We uncover their creative, scripting and filming processes, examine their position as “permanent underdogs”, and as we dive further into how they pool their personal ambition, we happen upon one of the best thing’s Stu has ever heard…

40 mins of scorchingly good extra content available exclusively to the Insiders Club includes FA&H sharing their own homemade vocabulary of sketch-writing terms, including “The Matrix’, “The Swan-dive”, “Chris-Rocking” and more! We also cover how they embody the DIY aesthetic regarding management and pitching to people, and Stu forces them to describe each other’s strengths and weaknesses in detail…

Go to www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders for this and much more, including the exclusive Insiders Q&As with Nish Kumar, James Acaster and Fern Brady and the incredible “self-help for comedians” special with Amanda Donnet.

For Foil Arms & Hogs videos check out: www.youtube.com/foilarmsandhog (And because they are not 'Youtubers' you can see their live show tour dates here: www.foilarmsandhog.ie/tour)

Everything Stu's up to: Stu offers remote talks to business on what the distilled wisdom of over 350 comics can teach you about resilience, especially in times of pandemic. “The most inspiring talk I’ve had in years!” (LEGO staff member) Find out more at www.stuartgoldsmith.com

Stu’s “Virtual Office Party” is now available as the perfect solution to remote-working office parties, sales conferences, motivational and wellbeing events. “It was an absolutely hysterical and wonderful evening, for both those partaking and everyone watching online!”
- Maria Kuzak, (Fundraising Manager at CALM)

"The games and interactive element were hilarious and extremely well executed! 10/10 from us, you created a real buzz in our business, thank you."
- Ben Gott, (SVP at Merkle)

This podcast is @ComComPod on Twitter and Instagram

www.comedianscomedian.com

LISTEN HERE

Filed Under: Audiences, Aunty Donna, Edinburgh, Festival, Foil Arms and Hogg, Fringe, Interview, Phil Burgers, Sketch, Stage Persona, Success, Tommy Tiernan, TV, Writing Jokes, Writing On Stage, YouTube

Bear-like in stature and authority and nimble of wit, Pierre Novellie is a fantastic comedian and writer who wrings every punchline out of his routines.  We talk about how his origins in Johannesburg and the Isle Of Man make him an “outsider expert” on the English, and discover why he deliberately obscured his vice-presidency of Cambridge Footlights. We talk about his early assumptions that he was somehow low status on stage; explore his body of work, and attitudes to risk and certainty; and discover the perils of “getting your bum out too early”…

A belting 40 mins of extras available exclusively to the Insiders Club features Pierre and Stu sharing their tips on how to survive corporate gigs, with advice on material selection, mindset and how to think about the money in the right way. Also Stu reads some of Pierre’s reviews back to him - the monster! - and we learn about authenticity, and how to wring all of the topics out of a joke…

Go to www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders for this and much more, including the exclusive Insiders Q&As with Nish Kumar, James Acaster and Fern Brady and the incredible “self-help for comedians” special with Amanda Donnet.

Catch up with Pierre Novellie:
www.pierrenovellie.com
TW/IG: @pierrenovellie
Pierre is co-host of @TheBudPod with Mr Phil Wang
Watch Pierre’s sketch show CUTS here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9ZMCN60lVA

Everything Stu's up to:
TW/IG: @ComComPod
www.comedianscomedian.com

Stu offers remote talks to business on what the distilled wisdom of over 350 comics can teach you about resilience, especially in times of pandemic.
“The most inspiring talk I’ve had in years!” (LEGO staff member)

Find out more at www.stuartgoldsmith.com

Stu’s “Virtual Office Party” is now available as the perfect solution to remote-working office parties, sales conferences, motivational and wellbeing events.
“It was an absolutely hysterical and wonderful evening, for both those partaking and everyone watching online!”
- Maria Kuzak (Fundraising Manager at CALM)

“The games and interactive element were hilarious and extremely well executed! 10/10 from us, you created a real buzz in our business, thank you."  - Ben Gott (SVP at Merkle)

For more info on how this unique concept can bring your staff together while working apart, go to www.stuartgoldsmith.com

LISTEN HERE

Filed Under: Age, Audiences, Awards, BBC, comcompod, Corona, Corporate Gigs, Corporate Work, COVID-19, Dave (TV channel), Dylan Moran, Edinburgh, Eshaan Akbar, Festival, Footlights, Fringe, Futile Attempts, Garrett Millerick, Geoff Norcott, Ian Cognito, Interview, Jeff Dunham, Jon Robins, London, Mark Olver, Matt Ewings, Mental Health, Mike Gunn, Nish Kumar, Onstage Persona, Persona, Phil Wang, Pierre Novellie, Radio, Reviews, Stage Persona, Success, The Mash Report, TV

Stevie Martin has been generating excellent material for years, and is now starting to break through due to her jaw-droppingly funny online videos, packed with punchlines and with a genuinely unique flavour.

We talk about the huge amount of time and prep that goes into her work, as she battles to feel like a “proper comedian” in an industry that prioritises certain styles, backgrounds and looks.

We also explore her brilliant former sketch outfit Massive Dad, and whether their aesthetic made them “unapproachable” as performers; the relative loneliness of stand-up; and trying to love Edinburgh in the way that it deserves to be loved…

Insiders:
35 mins of extra content available exclusively to the Insiders Club include Stevie on her murky past as an Edinburgh Fringe reviewer! She also shares some surprising insights about what works on Twitter and why, the inside editorial secrets of content creators, and we find out why her next Edinburgh poster might sell her in a very different way than previous years.

Go to www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders for this and much more, including the exclusive Insiders Q&As with Nish Kumar, James Acaster and Fern Brady and the incredible “self-help for comedians” special with Amanda Donnet.

LISTEN HERE

Filed Under: ABK, Acting, Adam Riches, Age, Alasdair Beckett-King, Audiences, Awards, Big Train, Brett Goldstein, Channel 4, comcompod, Corona, COVID-19, Edinburgh, Fame, Feminism, Fern Brady, Festival, Fringe, Interview, Nish Kumar, Onstage Persona, Persona, Podcasting, Stage Persona, Success, TV, TV Comedy, Twitch, Twitter, Viral, Writing Jokes, YouTube

Irrepressibly optimistic, utterly in love with his craft and very mentally robust, Paul Zerdin is the British ventriloquist who won America's Got Talent.

We talk about his lengthy career working across different circuits -- from variety, cruises and holiday camps to mainstream comedy -- and discuss how he navigates the suspicions of the alternative comedy industry. Paul outlines in detail his pandemic pivot, the relentless energy devoted to TV pitches, how he planned his AGT set to build and build, as well as deception, illusion, and the modular nature of magic...

~15 minutes of extra Insider content available, including Paul's drive to create a fourth-wall-breaking ventriloquist animation, world domination, and Vegas, baby!

Go to www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders for this and much more, including the exclusive Insiders Q&As with Nish Kumar, James Acaster and Alfie Brown, and your invite to the forthcoming ones with Fern Brady and a “self-help for comedians” special with Amanda Donnet (MClinPsych)

Find Paul here:
paulzerdin.com
IG: @paulzerdin
TW: @paulzerdin
FB: Paul Zerdin
YT: Paul Zerdin
www.paulzerdin.com
youtube.com/paulzerdin
@paulzerdin

This podcast is @ComComPod on twitter and instagram

LISTEN HERE

Filed Under: AGT, Audiences, Interview, Mrs Brown’s Boys, Stage Persona, Success, TV, USA, Vegas, Writing Jokes

“A drill-sergeant not a perfectionist”, Jessie Cave enjoys simultaneous careers as an actress, comic, artist, and performance artist, all of which marry an extraordinary pragmatism with an attitude of artistic abundance.

We talk about her relentless documentation of her life as a means of seeking permanence, the tragic death of her brother in 2019 - how she processed it, and the effect it had on her creativity - as well as her recent Soho On Demand special “Sunrise”, filmed in Corona to an audience of her sister BeBe, and her new novel “Sunset”.

* Content warning: Sexual assault *

15 mins of extra content available exclusively to the Insiders Club include Jessie on how her membership of the Harry Potter franchise has a legacy of fandom that isn’t always useful to her as an independent artist, and how the Cave Sisters Patreon has changed her relationship with elements of her following.

Go to www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders for this and much more, including the exclusive Insiders Q&As with Nish Kumar, James Acaster and Fern Brady and the incredible “self-help for comedians” special with Amanda Donnet.

Instagram @JessieCave Twitter @JessieCave Website: www.jessiedoodles.com Find Jessie’s debut novel “Sunset” here: https://linktr.ee/Jessie_Cave Find Jessie and Bebe’s podcast: “We Can’t Talk About This Right Now” on YouTube and podcast providers Patreon: www.patreon.com/cavesisters

LISTEN HERE

Filed Under: Acting, Actor, Age, Alfie Brown, Alternative Comedy, Art, Audiences, Awards, Cave Sisters, Channel 4, Coping, Corona, Edinburgh, Festival, Fringe, Interview, Stage Persona, Success, Sunset, TV, Whimsy, YouTube

“Not a cute ragdoll, but a disgusting sex robot”, Rosie Jones is a triple-threat in ways of which you couldn’t dream if you hadn’t seen her act. Leveraging hugely punchy comedy from people’s constant underestimation at her sheer agency, we discover the precision comic timing borne of her cerebral palsy; her new political dynamism; and why she won’t drown, even though she can’t swim.

40 mins of extra content from comedy’s Thanos, available exclusively to the Insiders Club include her *unmissable* insights from behind both production and performance sides of TV panel games; how and why her feelings about being viewed as an inspiration have changed; and why Nish Kumar is such a horrible man.

Go to www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders for this and much more, including the exclusive Insiders Q&As with Nish Kumar, Alfie Brown and your invite to the forthcoming ones with Fern Brady (24th May) and a self-help for comedians special with Amanda Donnet (MClinPsych)

LISTEN HERE

Filed Under: Audiences, Billy Connolly, Channel 4, comcompod, disability, Diversity, Edinburgh, Heckles, Helen Bauer, Inspiration, Interview, Stage Persona, Success, TV, TV Comedy, Victoria Wood, Would I Lie To You?, Writing Jokes