Idiomatic Game Show

Hey! I’m doing this game show tonight at the Pack Theater. There’s a published author on every show and this month, it’s me! Tickets here! I will talk about my book Restart Me Up: The Unofficial Un-Accurate Oral History of Windows 95.

Idiomatic is a panel show about words, phrases, and why we say things the way we do. You know what it means if something is ‘in your wheelhouse,’ but what IS a wheelhouse?

Each episode contains games that the audience can play along with from their seats, from Decoding Diner Slang to thinking of Words that Don’t Rhyme to answering the eternal question, “Is It French?’, as well as the Idiomatic round in which our teams are quizzed about the origins of common phrases, like the original product to give you more “Bang for Your Buck”, finding out who uses “Ballpark Figures”, and which president we have to thank for “Booze”.

The game is hosted by Rob Schultz and played by two teams of three guest panelists, at least one of which is guaranteed to be a published author!

New Podcast: College Town

I guested on College Town with Ryan Gaul, playing a new character this time. It’s always fun to play with Erin Whitehead and Seth Morris, and I’d describe this one as “cheerfully gross.” It’s part of Comedy Bang Bang World and you can listen and subscribe on CBBWorld.com The episode is: College Town E81: Kiss Kiss, Jan Brain Jan Brain (feat. Ryan Gaul, Lesley Tsina) Here’s the blurb:

This week, on a very varicose episode, Beebo and Jan welcome Doug Hancock of Hancock Toyota (Ryan Gaul) and Museum of Spite curator, Claudine LaBong (Lesley Tsina). They talk relationship baggage, old school men, family dinners, toothpaste flavors and the great Monty P (mons pubis).

New Podcast: The Storm Runner

I have a recurring role as an extremely friendly and helpful alien in this sci-fi audio drama made by some very cool people. Check it out! I show up starting in Episode 4, but you should really hear the whole thing. Get it at www.stormrunnerpodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

“Beyond the civilized worlds lie the Five Rings, a cluster of planets racked by storms. Ezz Bennil is a storm runner, making her living collecting the valuable crystals that form on these dangerous worlds with the help of her attentive (and somewhat reluctant) ship A.I., Boat.

But a chance encounter with a deadly new threat forces Ezz and Boat to embark on an epic journey across the stars in an effort to save the world. Er, worlds. Plural. All of them.”

Take class with me!

Hey! I’m teaching my first class at UCB starting in May. Come join me and we’ll watch a bunch of funny sketches and write other funny sketches. It’s running in-person at the Franklin campus in LA.

Course description: Through the concept of “game” and with feedback from instructors and classmates, students will craft their very own written comedic scenes. Limited to 12 students.

You can register here. Hope to see you!

Recent-ish Podcasts

It’s been a while since I’ve done an update but I wanted to send links to a couple of podcasts I’ve been on, both really fun.

I watched Are You There God It’s Me Margaret and discussed it with Anne Rieman and Ryan Perez. Spoiler alert, it’s good! Mama Needs a Movie: Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret.

https://podtail.com/en/podcast/mama-needs-a-movie/are-you-there-god-it-s-me-margaret-with-lesley-tsi/

David Ferguson (The Birthday Boys) and I guested on College Town with Erin Whitehead and Seth Morris. This is a really fun improvised podcast about all the people living this one college town. For some reason, I can’t stop bringing up the Mütter Museum every other time I guest on something. You can listen to it by subscribing to Comedy Bang Bang World. The episode is “Two Jans and a Weeny.” Here’s the blurb:

“Jan and Beebo chat with Middleston College professor of figure drawing, Janet Vanderwurf and local Mammet Valley slumlord, Don Weeny. Tune in for a mental patient era debate, Jan’s nipples, Beebo’s Toilet woes at Lake Havasu, barrel sleeping and more! Produced by Scott Aukerman and Brett Morris.”

“Totally Pals!” Podcast

Did an episode of the Totally Pals Podcast with my old I Can Haz Ringwurmz friends Steve Szlaga and Amy Vorpahl. It’s basically a fake sitcom behind-the-scenes recap. I haven’t improvised with these two in ages and we laughed until we cried recording this. I hope it translates.