Tori Smith is an NYC-based game designer, writer, actor, and cosplayer. She performs at the Magnet with Musical Megawatt house team Gem and indie-team Freeze Frame and is a founding castmember of the Bad Guys & B-Sides DnD Podcast.
This week the Perfectionists (Ellen and Dennis) talk to stand-up comedian, filmmaker, producer, podcaster, actor, director, and New Yorker cartoonist Victor Varnado (who, he assures us, also wrote all the good parts of the bible).
Our friend Victor is not only a multitalented, cross-medium, cross-platform artist and comedian, he’s also a successful entrepreneur/businessman who empowers others to do the same. A big theme of our conversation was finding ways to work on things you’re truly passionate about and inspired by.
Victor is the host of at least two podcasts: Six Unseemly Questions and Arts Academy. His next podcast is called Wiki Listen. So after you wiki listen to this, go wiki listen to those!
Ed Millar opens our eyes to the true literal interpretation of songs with the podcast “Music Literally.” In the episode he brought us, Spence gets bullied.
Katie Hartman chills us to the bone with the podcast “The More You Poe.” In the episode she brought us, we are faced with the knowledge of dancing skellingtons.
Katie Hartman is a New York-based theatre maker. She is co-artistic director of the touring theatre company, the Coldharts, and the Producer of the 2022 Cincinnati Fringe Festival.
Strap on your headphones and get ready for this “movie for your ears”—this week we’ve got Jonathan Mitchell, creator and producer of one of our favorite podcasts, The Truth, which just celebrated its tenth year. We get into Jonathan’s history in public radio and the early days of podcasting, experimental electronic music, the process of breaking a Truth episode, and we even get into Jonathan’s new hobby: DIY stop motion animation!
Jonathan Mitchell is the producer of The Truth Podcast, an anthology fiction show that’s celebrating its tenth year. He has been an audio producer for 25 years.
Dejen Tesfa is a Brooklyn-based comedy writer / performer with a sketch and improv background from UCB Theater. He's currently in an animation writing fellowship for PBS affiliate WGBH and their show "Work it Out Wombats!" premiering early 2023. He drops two sketches a month to his YouTube channel (Deja Deja Comedy, bit.ly/funnyreel) with over 5k subscribers, and he's written two web series, two original pilots, and specs for Pen15 and ATLANTA.
Further back he had a software company in college that he sold in 2013, and has since worked at various tech startups and Microsoft while appearing in videos for Disney+, NBC News Digital, Bleacher Report and Cosmopolitan, and performing in the Toronto Sketch Fest, Philly Sketch Fest, Brooklyn Comedy Festival, NY Sketchfest and New York Musical Improv Festival.
This week we welcome our BFF Jamie Rivera to the pod! Jamie’s a performer and teacher at Magnet Theater, as well as an amateur toy photographer. What’s amateur toy photography? Give this episode a listen and find out!
We discuss the challenge of embracing hobbies deemed “juvenile,” the perfect way to receive a compliment, and learning to love the burn of Scotch (and the burn of making art)!
Check out Jamie’s toy photography on Insta: @jamrivfigs, and his tweets @mr_jamriv. Interested in signing up for one of Jamie’s improv classes? Or seeing him perform live? Check out magnettheater.com for both!
Kevin Tully and Matt Kerstetter develop our interest in the pod cast they brought, “Development Hell.” In the episode they brought, Denny’s has great accoustics.
Kevin Tully has been doing Improv in NYC since 2008. He has been taught by the epically talented Rick Andrews, Russ Armstrong, Louis Kornfeld, Zach Woods and Curtis Gwinn. He has been on Armory and Magnet house teams and has appeared on The Colbert Report and College Humor. He is also one of the co-founders of “Crisis: An Improvised Comic Book” Outside of Improv, Kevin edits and shoots videos for local bands and comics.
Performer in the jet-setting, nation-traveling improv group Crisis: An Improvised Comic Book. Doing dumb li'l skits with Matt & Austin (Youtube, Instagram, Facebook). Wrote some plays about superheroes, time travel, and Prince. Big fan of his wife, their cat, and the Twisted Metal video game franchise.
This week improviser, storyteller, and writer Rob Penty talks perfectionism and how it’s really about minimizing risk. Then, Rob and the Perfectionists somehow do a “sober drunk history” on psychological experiments. If you’re looking for a fun convo about hypochondria, OCD, Catholicism, and mindfulness meditation, you’ve come to the right place. Folks, if this one don’t have it, you don’t want it!
You can find Rob performing monthly on The Little Big Show at the Magnet Theater. Read his writing at www.actuallyitsrobpentydotorg.com. Rob’s ebook was designed by Carly Monardo and laid out by Nick Jaramillo.