Hosted by Dennis PachecoEllen Matthews.
How do you spend your birthday?
Is it a day, a week, a month of celebrations? Do you have an annual tradition or ritual? Is it a time of somber reflection or a wild bacchanalia? Do you try to ignore it? We hear from listeners and share our own personal stories of perfect birthdays.
If you like the pod, tell your friends! Subscribe! Give us a review and rate us! We might just read your review on the air.
Oh boy, do we get into it this episode! Rude strangers. They’re out there! And sometimes you can’t avoid them. What do you do? Ignore them? Lead with compassion? Do you get aggressive, or do you practice kindness and patience? Folks, we’ve tried all strategies and we’re here to share our real-world takeaways.
Also, listeners write in with their stories of dealing with rude strangers, and we tell them how they did.
If you want to hear your story on the podcast, write to us at PursuitOfPerfectness@gmail.com or follow us on Instagram @PursuitOfPerfectness to find out what our next topic will be.
If you like the show, tell your friends and rate and review us on your favorite podcast app. It would simply be rude not to!
What is coolness? When do you got it? When do you not?
From their rarefied position as two of the coolest average Joes in Podland, Ellen and Dennis peel back the mysteries of cool and reveal how anyone can achieve perfect coolness. Also, listeners of the PoD write in and relate the times in their lives when they felt the most cool.
Hey, you know what else is really cool? Rating and reviewing, liking and subscribing, and telling your friends about the Pursuit of Perfectness! Be cool, man!
It’s time to check in with our New Year’s Resolutions. How are we doing? Perfect? Probably not, and that’s okay!
In this episode, Ellen and Dennis dig in to the mentality of New Year’s self improvement pledges and talk about out how to make those life changes we all want to make—without beating ourselves up when we fall short. Also, our beloved listeners write in with their NYR stories and advice.
Resolve to listen and tell your friends!
Have a comment or question? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @pursuitofperfectness and write to us at PursuitOfPerfectness@gmail.com.
Ever been embarrassed? Yeah, us too! This episode, your intrepid hosts Ellen and Dennis focus on listener input about how to handle embarrassing moments perfectly.
It’s Season 4: Overthinking with Dennis and Ellen! This season will be cozier and more intimate, focusing on stories and opinions from you, the listeners. Each episode we’ll drill down into one topic and share thoughts and advice filtered through the experiences of two average joes who do improv in New York City. Have a question you’d like to ask? A comment you want us to read on the air? Write to us at PursuitOfPerfectness@gmail.com, follow us on Instagram @PursuitOfPerfectness, and find us on Facebook!
This week on the pod we’ve got legendary improv instructor and founder of the Magnet Theater Armando Diaz!
Armando talks to us about his improv journey from Chicago to New York, where he became the Johnny Appleseed of New York improv theaters—from UCB in its earliest days, to the PIT, and finally to founding the Magnet (where your intrepid hosts Ellen and Dennis trained and flourished)!
Sure, this is a must-listen for improv philosophy and improv history nerds, but we’ve also got a lot to chew on for everyone else—including ruminations on what it means to come into your own and become an adult. Folks, this is a good one. But don’t take our word for it—listen now!
This week we have science writer Luis Enrique Sandoval Del Prado. Luis recounts the story of how a college drama department production of Beauty and the Beast helped him defeat the demon of negative self talk, and we talk more generally about creative expression and how it can help us manage stress.
All that, PLUS Ellen and Dennis do a science quiz Luis wrote about plants! How did we do? How many will you get right? Stick around and find out! (Watch out for the tomato question—everybody’s getting it wrong!)
Folks, this week we present our lovely chat with the wonderful Adam Wade. Adam is a 20-time Moth Story Slam winner (18 StorySLAM victories and 2 GrandSLAM Championships). He has toured across North America with The Moth Main Stage, and his stories have appeared on The Moth Radio Hour and The Moth Podcast. He’s also a Storytelling Instructor at the Magnet Theater.
We talk with Adam about the importance of making a connection with your audience–whether that’s 100,000 people in an opera house or five friends at a party. We also discuss the efficacy of consistent meditation, learning to appreciate the people who love you, and the value of being yourself.
This is a great one. Tell your friends.
We’re back, and boy have we got a corker for you this week! The Perfectionists sit down with Dennis’s old mentor — New York Times bestselling cartoonist and teacher at the School of Visual Arts, Nick Bertozzi! They talk about learning to stay true to yourself as a professional artist, unlearning the habit of people pleasing, projecting your dang voice in the classroom and on the stage, and most importantly assertiveness (when do you have it, when do you not, and how can you learn it?).
Nick’s upcoming graphic novel is called BOMB! (based on a YA novel by Steve Sheinkin) and it’s about how the Soviets stole the secrets of the Manhattan Project to create their own atomic bomb. It’ll be out in Winter of 2023 from Roaring Brook Press.
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.
