As you can see, Jeff is on The Moth Podcast today. We also have him on The Standard Issues podcast this week delivering a very special wedding present. This timing is completely coincidental. Also on this episode you can hear Cyndi Freeman doing an excerpt from her show “Wonder Woman: A How To Guide For Little Jewish Girls.” You have three more chances to see that show in New York and you can find the dates here.
While we are shamelessly riding on Jeff’s fame, check out the current post on my blog, billyjoesboy.com. Burlesque queen Mary Cyn called it comic genius and I will take that.
I had the honor of performing in The Moth’s GrandSLAM back in January at the Highline Ballroom here in New York City. The night’s theme was “Into the Wild.” Naturally, I told another story about the brief period of time I spent working as an assistant to a kangaroo shooter in the Australian Outback.
I’ve been to that well before, and I think I’ve about beat that thing to death by now. Still, I’m glad I was able to squeeze another story out of it.
It’s not every day that a giant lizard tries to eat your blood-soaked pants. And the opportunity to talk about having a giant lizard steal my pants on a kangaroo shooting trip doesn’t really come up in conversation at the office all that much either.
So I’m really glad I got to use that little gem for something. I’ve probably forced it a few times too many over the years.
The Moth was awesome enough to include my story in their podcast today, too. I’ve wanted to make their podcast for years, and it’s a pretty huge honor. I feel like running down the hall at work high-fiving people, but I’m pretty sure that opportunity’s not going to present itself either.
Here’s a video of me telling that story from today’s Moth podcast at the January GrandSLAM, in case you’re stumbling in off the Internet and wondering if I am, in fact, a bald-headed white dude with glasses and a suit:
The show is about how the TV show Wonder Woman, starring Lynda Carter, inspired me as a kid and how the icon continues to give me guidance to this day.
It was 1976 when the first pilot episode aired. The first full season was set during World War II – this held a special interest for me for 2 reasons.
1- My dad designed weaponry in that war – in fact he helped develop the Bazooka.
2- In Hebrew School they were teaching us about the Holocaust.
And there was Wonder Woman on Friday night kicking Nazi Ass!
Okay after she breaks out of her straps – she kicks Nazi ass!
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Here is the info on the show – there’s one week left. If you are in NY I hope you can make it!!
FRIGID New York presents an HT production:
Wonder Woman: A How To Guide for Little Jewish Girls
Written by Cyndi Freeman* / Directed by David Drake
@ THE RED ROOM (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery)
Tue Mar 1st – 8:00 PM / Thu Mar 3rd -11:00 PM / Sat Mar 5th – 2:00 PM
Tickets $10 ($7 Students & seniors) www.smarttix.com / or call: 212-868-4444
Two-time FringeNYC award-winning writer/performer Cyndi Freeman’s latest solo show traces her journey from a little suburban Jewish girl obsessed with Wonder Woman to a fabulous burlesque queen in NYC. A veteran storyteller and MothSlam winner, Freeman recounts personal tales of heroics and harrowing adventures while joyfully spewing trivia about America’s first and favorite female super hero: Wonder Woman. Join her on a crusade to right wrongs while wearing fabulous outfits. For more information and images go to -www.heroicsinhotpants.com.
This podcast is brilliant and it is almost none of my doing. It has to do with Tracy Rowland, Jenna Brister, and Jim O’Grady. And Port Authority bathrooms, bad parenting, indestructible hamsters, and killer monkey movie stars.
All of this happened at the first Domino Effect live show. The next one will feature Nisse Greenberg, Adam Wade, and David Ellis Dickerson. That one is for the ladies.
That will be March 15th at Fifth Estate in Park Slope, Brooklyn – 506 5th Ave (between 12th St & 7th Ave).
A little bubble of summer weather surfaced just after Thanksgiving in Jersey City, late enough to be a treat but not so out of place that the guy on the corner in the velour tracksuit with a cigar would make a little global warming joke about it.
I’d just walked up the street to see DeCarlos about a suit he was working on for me. When I walked up the sidewalk, it was completely clear. Fifteen minutes later, this fridge appeared in the sidewalk, maybe coalesced out of some swirling dirty plastic vapors or something. It had no front door, nothing in it except for this one PBR gleaming in the freezer compartment:
A discussion on kids, death, and the appropriate times to wear flesh tone panty hose. Plus a story about the moment when you figure out where you are really coming from.
Get it here, subscribe to it, then come to the next Standard Issues live show – Pacific Standard, 82 4th Ave in Brooklyn, February 22nd at 8 – and see Jeff Simmermon perform for my Podcast. Be the first on your street, because after his upcoming appearance on the Moth podcast, the closest you will be able to get is FedExing him your underwear.
And then read this thing on the horrors of Kindergarten.
A new episode of The Standard Issues podcast is up. This one features three stories from January’s live show at Pacific Standard in Brooklyn.
The theme was “Heat” and the performers were Jenna Brister, Miguel DeLeon, and Daisy Rosario. In this episode we learn that the reason Jenna is called Blue Thunder is very different from the rest of her fast pitch softball teammates. Miguel teaches us how to use the Scoville scale to measure anger, and Daisy explains why she never saw Darryl Strawberry hit a home run even though she attended a game where he hit two.
When I listen to a podcast there are two things I like most, that I think work the best. One is sitting in on a conversation and listening to people talk about something important to them, as in last week’s show. The other is shows recorded in front of a live audience, like this week’s show.
There is something about hearing the sounds of the audience as they react that makes you feel like you are in the room for the show, it makes the whole thing seem more immediate. That is why I hope that some of you can make these next couple of shows where we will be recording new episodes and be our next live audience.
Then we have next Standard Issues live show, Pacific Standard, also in Park Slope at the corner of 4th Ave and Saint Marks, also at 8. That one will feature And I Am Not Lying’s creator and editor in chief, our J. Jonah Jameson if you will, Jeff Simmermon.
When I had my testicle removed, the doctors refused to let me keep it in a little jar. Which was probably pretty smart on their part. Because I swear to fucking Christ, the next person who tells me that a diet rich in leafy greens and condescending self-help would have prevented the whole thing would catch that severed testicle right in the face.
It would have been nice to know that I should have been putting “Eat, Pray, Love” into a VitaMix with a bunch of wheatgrass juice and drinking a big glass of it every day for a decade before I got sick. Instead, I ate right, exercised, and got sick anyway. I don’t think all the sunshine and yoga in the world is going to grow that sucker back.
I made this image about it last night. I’m not sure if it sends the message or not, but sharing it makes me feel better. This one’s for all the people who don’t want to turn their illness into a life-defining mission. It’s for everyone that just wants to get back to normal.
I don’t want to fight cancer — I just want cancer to fuck off.
I really love podcasts. They are intimate and portable little visits with people and ideas and information. If it is a podcast with a lot of interaction by regulars it can be like sitting in on a gathering of friends. And depending on the atmosphere – studio or a live audience, just two people talking or a bunch of folks jumping into the conversation – it can either be a really smart coffee break or a big rolling party. All while you shop for snow boots or wait for your train or make dinner. I would say about sixty percent of my entertainment hours are spent on podcasts. That leaves thirty percent for Buffy reruns and much less time for porn than one might have thought.
Anyway, all of this is why I decided to make a podcast of my own. The Standard Issues live show is now The Standard Issues podcast. However, a lot of storytelling shows are recording their performers and putting out a podcast. And we will be doing that as well. But for our first time out, we wanted to start off in a different direction right from the beginning and so I had a sit down conversation with some of the best storytellers in the New York scene to talk about what storytelling is and how they got into it. This will be a regular part of the show along with live performances and that is a combination that encompasses what makes the form so enjoyable to me. I am feeling like this could be something really special. Here is the link.
By the way, there is a very long discussion about the crafting of a story by Jeff for his recent GrandSLAM appearance. Hopefully, he will find a way to post some version of that very soon. And we will be recording new episodes of the Podcasts live on two dates this month – First at Domino Effect at Fifth Estate, February 15th, and then at The Standard Issues live show at Pacific Standard, February 22nd.
