Beginnings
672 episodes - English - Latest episode: 4 days ago - ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsWe all know the stories of how creative people get into the business of creating for a living, but how did they start using their imaginations in the first place? On the Beginnings podcast, writer and performer Andy Beckerman asks well-known and on-their-way-up comedians, musicians, writers, artists and thinkers about their earliest creative acts, their formative childhood experiences, and how they've developed both creatively and emotionally over the years. Beginnings is part therapy, part philosophy and almost all fascinating (95% according to FDA studies).
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Episodes
Beginnings episode 22: Matt Fisher
July 30, 2011 21:34 - 1 hour - 38.3 MBContinuing our pattern of interviewing funny and nice comedians, this episode we talk to Matt Fisher, a hilarious and gracious improviser, actor and writer. His improv team The Law Firm is a house team that performs every week at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York. Matt has also written for ESPN's The Pretty Good Sports Show, and with his former sketch group Sidecar, has produced stage shows and videos, garnering the People’s Choice Award at 2010's New York Television Festival ...
Beginnings episode 21: Ben Katchor
July 30, 2011 21:18 - 46 minutes - 21.6 MBFor our first foray outside the world of comedy, we talked to Ben Katchor, the super-thoughtful, world-weary cartoonist, author of such comics as Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. Running in publications like The New Yorker and The Village Voice, among many others, his comics have also been collected in books including The Jew of New York and his latest, The Cardboard Valise, and in 2000, he won the MacArthur Genius Award for his work. Ben's work is both surreal and grounded - odd worl...
Beginnings episode 20: Opus Moreschi
July 30, 2011 21:04 - 1 hour - 38.2 MBOpus Moreschi is a tall, pale son of Italy and an improviser, formerly a house performer at Improv Olympic West and currently at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York. He’s also written for shows such as Lil’ Bush and The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn. Opus is an inspiring figure, for his talent, of course, but especially for his determination. When it was announced that Stephen Colbert was getting his own show, Opus knew he immediately wanted to write for him. Five writing pa...
Beginnings episode 19: Kevin Allison
July 30, 2011 06:23 - 1 hour - 30.8 MBKevin Allison is the funny and kind founder of the Risk! podcast and member of the sketch group The State, who tore through comedy in the mid-90s, becoming a seminal humor moment for many teenagers of the day. When The State ended, Kevin was unsure of his direction, and spent a number of years pursuing different paths. Some problematic performing experiences eventually led him into dropping his fictional facade on stage, and he began true storytelling, starting The Risk! podcast and live sho...
Beginnings episode 18: Mike Lawrence
July 30, 2011 05:01 - 1 hour - 39.1 MBMike Lawrence is a good example of what to do if you are serious about having a career in comedy and in working on your craft. Dedicated, thoughtful, opinionated and above all funny, he has spent the last five and half years, first in Florida, and then here in New York, going up night after night and working his material. Mike puts the responsibility for comedy solely in the hands of the performer, and it is that person's job to make the audience laugh. There is no other excuse. And this app...
Beginnings episode 17: Eddie Brill
July 30, 2011 04:45 - 1 hour - 37.1 MBEddie Brill is an incredibly friendly and thoughtful guy, in addition to being a beloved veteran of the stand-up stage in America and abroad. We met Eddie briefly at this year's ECNY awards, and even with the frenzied pace of the red carpet he managed to draw us in and make us feel like old pals having a liesurely conversation. For the last thirteen years, Eddie has been the warm-up comedian and talent coordinator, as well as a frequent guest on The Late Show with David Letterman. In 2008, h...
Beginnings episode 16: Greg Proops
July 30, 2011 04:28 - 59 minutes - 27.3 MBListing all of Greg Proops' credits would be a Herculean task. As the closest Wrestling Team gets to a Greek demigod is Stinkor from He-Man, we shall just list a few: Greg is one of the stars of the British and American Whose Line Is It Anyway?, he's an incredible stand-up with an album on AST Records, and he hosts of his own podcast The Smartest Man in the World, where he speaks extemporaneously and jocularly on any subject put before him. In mid-March, Greg was nice enough to sit down with...
Beginnings episode 15: Two Fun Men
July 30, 2011 04:11 - 58 minutes - 26.8 MBPart three of our tour through the prominent sketch groups in New York City brings us to Arthur Meyer and John Haskell AKA Two Fun Men. After meeting in an improv class in 2008, the duo decided to start working together, and since then have appeared at numerous sketch festivals around the country, have a show running at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York City, and have appeared in a number of sketches on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The two stopped by the Wrestling Team apartm...
Beginnings episode 14: Claudia Cogan
July 29, 2011 11:48 - 1 hour - 33.1 MBClaudia Cogan is an immensely funny person and has the accolades to prove it. Not only was she named one of the “10 Comics Funny People Find Funny" in New York Magazine and was winner of Time Out New York's first ever Joke of the Year, but Cogan was also on the last season of Last Comic Standing, making it to the semi-final round. She began her comedic career on the UCB Harold teams Pole Position and Beautiful Cop, moving from improv to sketch to eventually stand-up and produces the shows Tu...
Beginnings episode 13: Jon Wurster
July 29, 2011 04:19 - 44 minutes - 20.4 MBEpisode thirteen, our almost-anniversary, features Wrestling Team favorite Jon Wurster. When he's not drumming for Superchunk or A.C. Newman or The Mountain Goats or any other number of acts, he is one-half of the comedy duo Scharpling and Wurster. Along with producer and director Tom Scharpling, host of The Best Show on WFMU, the two create partly-scripted phone calls where Wurster plays different characters, from unabashed Philly fan Philly Boy Roy to geriatric Fonzie-inspiration The Gorch...
Beginnings episode 12: Matt McCarthy
July 29, 2011 03:51 - 1 hour - 35.7 MBMatt McCarthy is a stand-up, writer and actor based out of New York. McCarthy's television work includes his stint as the continually-flummoxed cable guy in the Verizon commercials and as co-host of AMC's Action Pack. Along with Oren Brimer and Pete Holmes, he makes web videos as Front Page Films. His stand-up is fierce, silly and dynamic, and his 2010 album Come Clean made a number of end-of-the-year lists. McCarthy sat down with us mid-December to discuss comedy as recapturing childhood, m...
Beginnings episode 11: Nathan Rabin
July 29, 2011 03:36 - 31 minutes - 14.3 MBNathan Rabin is the head writer for The A.V. Club, the sister-publication to The Onion that focuses on columns, articles and reviews of television, films, and other media. Rabin is also the author of two books - The Big Rewind, a memoir filtered through pop culture, and My Year of Flops, a collection of columns where Rabin focuses on revisiting failed movies to see if they deserved their ignominy. "My Year of Flops" started running regularly in The A.V. Club in 2007, and Rabin's wit and genu...
Beginnings episode 10: Kurt Braunohler
July 29, 2011 03:21 - 53 minutes - 24.4 MBKurt Braunohler is a writer, stand-up, improviser and actor living in New York City. A fearless improviser, he got his start at UCB, and as part of his Harold team Neutrino created the Neutrino Video Project, a fully improvised movie in Harold form filmed and edited for a live audience. Kurt is also one-half of Kurt and Kristen, his comedy duo with Kristen Schaal. Together, they host the live variety show Hot Tub, have written and starred in an award-winning Edinburgh Fringe Festival show, a...
Beginnings episode 9: Andrea Rosen
July 29, 2011 03:10 - 57 minutes - 26.6 MBAndrea Rosen is a stand-up, actress, and writer living in New York City. As a commercial actress, many people may know her from the Yoplait commercials (Why, we ask, is Key Lime Pie the topper and not Boston Creme Pie?). As an amazing comedian, many people may know her from her recurring role on Stella or from any number of sketch shows and films or her group Variety Shac. As a cool and personable human being, many people may know her as nice to talk to. We sat down with Andrea last week to ...
Beginnings episode 8: Elliott Kalan
July 28, 2011 02:05 - 1 hour - 46 MBElliott Kalan is an Emmy-award winning writer for The Daily Show and co-host of the amazing bad movie podcast The Flophouse (which is worth listening to regardless of whether you like bad movies or not, as the effortless riffing and chemistry between Elliott, Dan and Stuart is delightful). Simply put, Kalan is a funny guy. Quick-witted, amiable and hard-working, he has progressed from intern to PA to writer at The Daily Show, and in this episode we sit down to discuss that journey as well as...
Beginnings episode 7: Rue Brutalia
July 28, 2011 01:46 - 1 hour - 30.3 MBRue Brutalia is Jason Kalter and Jon Pack, a sketch duo that's been performing here in New York since 2006/2007. The duo met in one of Kevin Allison's sketch classes at The PIT and struck up a fast friendship and writing/performing relationship. Rue Brutalia's sketches are delightful and absurd and fun and playful, and the two have been picking up steam lately. They not only performed at NYC Sketchfest for their third year in 2010, but they also helped to produce the festival. Kalter and Pac...
Beginnings episode 6: Rich Fulcher
July 27, 2011 04:50 - 48 minutes - 55.4 MBWhile Wrestling Team has a number of influences and loves a wide variety of comedy, there are two people above all that we really look up to: Bob Odenkirk and Rich Fulcher. Both men are extremely silly but are also very honest. Also both love yelling and swearing, which is our bread and butter.Fulcher got his start doing improv in Chicago and eventually found himself out in Britain where he hooked up with Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding and wrote and performed on The Mighty Boosh radio and ...
Beginnings episode 5: James Adomian
July 27, 2011 04:20 - 1 hour - 31.6 MBComedy nerds might know James Adomian from Comedy Death Ray Radio where he plays a number of characters including Huell Howser, Jesse Ventura, and Christopher Hitchens. Non-comedy-nerds might know him from the latest season of Last Comic Standing or from the second Harold and Kumar film. West Coast comedy nerds might know him from the sketch group The Midnight Show. Everyone should know him from his stand-up because he's a hilarious dude. Listen as we interview him about murdering CEOs, Socr...
Beginnings episode 4: The Chris and Paul Show
July 27, 2011 03:58 - 48 minutes - 22.2 MBChris and Paul come closest to preserving the vaudeville spirit of the early 20th Century without hiding behind irony or simply being pastiches. They're joke writers plain and simple and love setting up a good gag. A couple weeks ago, they sat down with us to discuss their comedy, women, and Aunt Viv. Then, in an unrelated incident, the Wrestling Team apartment became infested with bedbugs, which we just finished dealing with, freeing us up to put out the episode. Enjoy!
Beginnings episode 3: Sean Patton
July 27, 2011 03:31 - 59 minutes - 27.3 MBEpisode three features our interview with the extremely funny stand-up Sean Patton. Sean's been a stand-up since 2001, and moved to New York in 2007. Since then, he's amassed a bottomless well of credits including a set on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Every Thursday, Sean co-hosts Comedy as a Second Language at Kabin, 9pm. Also, his eyes are pretty dreamy.
Beginnings episode 2: The Brothers Hines
July 27, 2011 02:20 - 57 minutes - 26.4 MBEpisode two features our first interview with successful comedians: Will and Kevin Hines. Will is the associate academic supervisor at the Upright Citizens Brigade Training Center in New York City, a performer on the UCB house team The Stepfathers, and co-author of the book Get Psyched! Kevin is a teacher at UCB, a performer on the UCB house team Reuben Williams, and a writer for the UCB video team Diamonds, Wow! Both of them have been improvising since the late 1990s, and both of those prev...
Beginnings episode 1: Cory Palmer and Aaron Burdette
July 27, 2011 01:38 - 49 minutes - 22.6 MBWrestling Team's brand new podcast dedicated to looking at the beginnings of comedians' careers. What leads people into comedy? What's it really like starting out? How can you build a lasting career? All these questions and more will be explored. On episode one, Wrestling Team's friends Cory Palmer and Aaron Burdette talk about moving to New York to start performing comedy and the duo tests out the concept of talking about beginnings. Verdict: guilty of three counts of fun and two counts of ...