Shakeytown Radio

Eli Braden (pt. 2)

The exciting conclusion to the earthquake cliffhanger!!!

Anne Beatts

PEOPLE! It behooves us to bring you a very special edition of the podcast this week... Anne Beatts is a writer, producer, professor at USC and Chapman, and true legend of comedy. She has a sketch writing course coming up July 30th through August 1st at Wordspace (http://wordspace.net) in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Atwater Village. In our conversation, she shares her philosophies on the differences between writing and performing for radio, stage, stand-up, and screen, and her thoughts on Los Angeles comedy clubs, improvisation, spontaneity, and writing the funny down for later. She was the first woman to become editor at National Lampoon, both the magazine and radio show. As one of the first writers hired by Lorne Michaels, she won the Emmy for her work on "Saturday Night Live," where her and Rosie Shuster created such characters as Uncle Roy, Fred Garvin: Male Prostitute, and Todd and Lisa (whose popularity literally put the word "nerd" in the dictionary). She created the cult TV hit "Square Pegs," which launched Sarah Jessica Parker's career and featured musical performances by The Waitresses and Devo, introducing punk rock characters on TV... sorry, sorry, "new wave" (different head). We talk about dealing with the network, a difficult Mike Ovitz, and a conveniently placed Dwayne "Dobie Gillis" Hickman in trying to see her vision through for the show. She also helped revamp the first season of "A Different World," and created the characters that would later usurp Lisa Bonet's Denise Huxtable as the leads on the show - Whitley and Dwayne Wayne. Besides Beatts' literary and television works, she also wrote the book for Leader Of The Pack, the Elle Greenwich Broadway musical. We discuss her upcoming classes, how she made her way as a woman in a male-dominated industry, the questionable ethics behind how money is made with internet content, why Gary Shandling is more like Craig Kilborn than Yoda, where Jim Hightower has got it right (but where he got it wrong), the recent GQ issue on comedy, why "Modern Family" is both good and bad (and "According To Jim" is just bad), the genius of Mitch Hedberg, the insanity of Michael O'Donoghue, a prank Bill Murray played on her before his "Square Pegs" appearance, a joke she wrote for Chevy Chase that he tried to sandbag, and many more memories from her 40 years in comedy. For more information on Finding Your Comedic Voice, contact Wordspace at info@wordspace.net. Or, contact Anne Beatts directly at Beattsclass@aol.com, or 310-273-1637. This episode also features the music of The Bouncing Souls (http://bouncingsouls.com)

Eli Braden (pt. 1)

Eli Braden (@elibraden on Twitter) is a comedian, musician, and writer whose work has appeared on The Huffington Post, Funny Or Die, Comedy Death Ray Radio, Comedy Central's "Atom TV," and G4's "Web Soup." His music videos include "Gay Ray, The Reggae Gay (The Homosexual Rasta)" and "Fat Girls." Among other topics in this special two-part episode, we discuss how every young man seems to find his first pornography in the form of discarded erotic fiction, the portrayal of the LGBT community in media and popular culture, and early 20th century racist/homophobic/sexist death cults (a.k.a. "Our Gang"). We also talk Devo, The Dead Milkmen, Oingo Boingo, and leave you on the edge of your headphones in a blood chilling cliffhanger. WHO... WILL... SURVIVE?!

Janie Haddad

Janie Haddad (@janiehaddad on Twitter) is an actress, vlogger (that's video blogger!), and self-professed comedy nerd. She has appeared on episodes of "Desperate Housewives," "Criminal Minds," "Monk," ""The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman," "Root Of All Evil," and appears in the upcoming film release "Some Guy Who Kills People", "a horror-comedy about a small town loser fresh out of the loony bin who seeks revenge on those he deems responsible for ruining his life," directed by Jack Perez ("Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus"). We talk about pursuing work in the entertainment business and dealing with rejection. She has also appeared on "Badge Ladies", a web series about the Lady Cop Division of the NYPD, which she wrote and produced with Samantha McIntyre. She'll be in a new web series called "Cupidity." We talk about giving yourself creative opportunities, such as when Haddad and friends founded the Meadows Basement theatre company. She's also a voice on the new Cartoon Network series "Regular Show", and we talk about life in the voiceover booth. We talk about national parks, Guys who freak out on "Last Comic Standing," and rest and relaxation at the spa (where fish nibble on your feet, though Brodie operates under the misapprehension that bugs are utilized instead). This episode also features music by I See Hawks In L.A.

Comedy's Ron Babcock

Comedy's Ron Babcock (heyron.com) is a stand-up performer, writer, actor, editor, and old friend of Brodie's from their days in Phoenix, AZ. They worked together on Modest Proposal, a zine and comedy group Ron co-created with Ryan McKee. Since moving to Los Angeles (this episode marks his fifth anniversary here!!!!!), Ron has appeared on "Last Comic Standing," at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, and on both The David Feldman Comedy Podcast and FunnyOrDie.com as the character George Lezley, an apologist for everything from Kim Jong Il to the BP oil spill. We talk about the perils of dating and relationships, crazy people, Burning Man, the World Cup, and "fan-based" comedy shows (a.k.a. "bringers").

April Richardson

April Richardson (aprilrichardson.com) is a comedienne, blogger, and zinester. She is one of the hosts of "Breakfast With The Smiths" on indie1031.com, and we talk about our love for Morrissey. Danzig comes up on the show once more, but this time he likes one of us - and one of us REALLY likes Anderson Cooper. We also discuss our favorite British comedy shows, time travel and parallel universes, and the evils of facial hair. This episode also features the music of GRAVY TRAIN!!!!

Tom Neely

Tom Neely (http://iwilldestroyyou.com) is an artist whose work includes the award-winning "The Blot" and his latest release, "Henry and Glenn Forever," which imagines Rollins and Danzig as a domestic partnership. We discuss small town folk art, horror comics, the D.I.Y. ethic, and ducking gunfire. We also hear Tom's music project, Self Indulgent Werewolf.

Epiz0de Zer0

Meet the hosts of Shakeytown Radio Hour, Gene George and Brodie Foster Hubbard.

Music Choice

A Shakeytown Radio Minute: Sick! The sixth minisode!

Gene's Mom

A Shakeytown Radio Minute: Yo, check out the fifth minisode!