Ian Talks Comedy

Ian Fermaglich
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Join NYC teacher and former stand up comedian Ian Fermaglich as he talks comedy with some of comedy's best.

  1. 2 HRS AGO

    Anson Williams at Sea World Reaction (w/Trent Mabry)

    Comedian Trent Mabry (album It's Good to Be Here) and I go over the 1977 syndicated special featuring Anson and his guests Lou Rawls, Tanya Tucker, The 5th Dimension, Marty Allen, and Skiles and Henderson

    44 min

  2. JAN 31

    Susan Isaacs (Scrooged / Seinfeld / Planes Trains, and Automobiles)

    Susan Isaacs joined me to discuss teaching at Chapman University; living on $400 a month rent in NYC; watching the Flintstones; no VCR's; watching Carson and SNL; being in the Groundlings with Lisa Kudrow, Chris Kattan, Will Ferrell, and Maggie Baird; going to USC Film School; guest starring on Family Ties; nice bosses making nice sets; starting a comedy troupe King Baby, with Tony Hale; Tony leaves to do Arrested Development; getting cut from Planes, Trains and Automobiles; Scrooged and Seinfeld and being awed by the height of Michael Richards and Bill Murray; reboots; TV is better than movies now; The Wrong Guys; She's Out of Control; doing a Sony digital commercial short; being a professor; hard to be just an actor; Singer & Sons pilot; getting added to the cast of Anything but Love the day before it was cancelled; Harold Gould v. Tom Bosley; Eric Stoltz v. Michael J. Fox; Peggy Sue Got Married; doing Delirious with John Candy; John Candy's life; funny people have trauma; Jodie Foster and Ron Howard are two child stars who've survived; Michael Jackson; her book Angry Conversations with God; turning it from a book to a one person show; story is universal even if not religious; improvising one of the first movies ever shot on an I Phone - Ride Share in 2011

    50 min

  3. JAN 24

    Tommy Kovac (host, Splat from the Past)

    Tommy Kovac joined me to discuss seeing Sam Kinison at 2; favorite SNL episodes; favorite comedy movies; Adam Sandler, Woody Allen, & Chevy Chase movies; loving all different sitcoms; comedy albums from Cheech and Chong and Radio Dinner; George Burns v. Brad Dourif & Nicholson v. Pachino 1975; 1994 Best Picture, 1980 Best Song; SCTV Perry Como, Bob Dylan; having done 2,500 shows; favorite guests Mitzi McCall & Charlie Brill; worst guest: Nicholas Myers & Butch Patrick; forgetting questions; wanting to have on Valerie Landsburg & Laraine Newman; having Cindy Morgan on; me almost getting Richard Dreyfuss and asking Jerry Seinfeld; being declined by Joanne Worley and Ruth Buzzi; people who died after being booked; Joe Polato; Richard Heard; pop culture nerd outs; belly buttons; sports; Cathy Rigby; Sean Weatherly; next year making 10 years

    56 min

  4. JAN 17

    Bob Illes (redo new Jan 2026 interview!)

    Bob Illes joined me to talk about his new book Funny is Money with 39 anecdotes; growing up in South Central LA; early TV influences; meeting writing partner James R. Stein at USC; doing the Stein & Illes show; Digby Wolfe; winning a contest to write for Tennessee Ernie Ford; Mike Ovitz; hard to get a radio job; working on Tom Smothers Organic Show; writing monologues for Bill Cosby on The New Bill Cosby Show; friction between Cosby & George Schlatter; meeting Groucho; working with Pat McCormick; Aaron Ruben hiring them on Sanford & Son; the controversial "Lamont, is that You" episode; doing a pilot for Schlatter called Lampoon w/ Alan Katz & Pat Proft; Joe & Sons; One Day at a Time; getting dressed down by Norman Lear and his mea culpa; What's Happening!!; Fernwood Tonight; A New Kind of Family with Rob Lowe & Janet Jackson; Dick Clair; Pat McCormick; working on The Steve Allen Comedy Hour and making a bad impression on Catherine O'Hara; his friendship with Sherman Helmsley; Anthony Geary & Ron Glass; All in the Family on the Nixon tapes;

    1h 18m

  5. JAN 10

    Michele Lee

    Michele Lee joined me to discuss her podcast Knot Done Yet and her co-hosts Donna Mills and Joan Van Ark; her father being a makeup artist in the arts; watching early TV including Ed Sullivan & Sid Caesar; being on stage since age 17; having two careers pre (Herbie the Love Bug) and post Knots Landing; being on Broadway in Vintage 60; her dad said not to audition for How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, she did and got the part; starring in The Comic with Dick Van Dyke and going to his 100th birthday party; Dick not understanding hate and still performing; a person's legacy; guesting on Laugh In, Love, American Style, The Love Boat, Hollywood Squares, Tattletales, and Alias Smith & Jones; loving Barry and being friends with Henry Winkler; Juie Harris; Knots Landing not intended to be a soap; her podcast not being political; realizing we're trying to form a More Perfect Union; Night of 100 Stars; seeing Hal Linden & Barbara Eden in Love Letters in their 90's; All Star Party for Joan Rivers; turning down Sinatra and their long friendship afterword

    46 min

  6. JAN 3

    Bob Illes (author, Funny is Money, Vintage 2020 ep w/ better sound)

    Bob Illes and I discuss his early years; starting a radio comedy show at USC; Digby Wolfe; winning a contest to write for Tennesse Ernie Ford; Mike Ovitz; writing monologues for Bill Cosby; meeting Groucho Marx and Peter Sellers; writing for the Lily Tomlin special and winning an Emmy; The Super Emmy; writing the Sanford & Son episode, "Lamont, Is That You", The Smothers Brothers NBC reboot; Mickey Rose; Chevy Chase; Don Novello; Joe & Sons, One Day at a Time, getting dressed down by Norman Lear and his mea culpa; What's Happening!!, Captain and Tenille Show, Fernwood Tonight, winning another Emmy for the last year of The Carol Burnett Show, America 2-Night; Peeping Times; The Mary Tyler Moore Hour;       Steve Allen Comedy Hour; Catherine O'Hara, Flo, Private Benjamin, No Soap, Radio; Silver Spoons; Jason Bateman, John Houseman; The Cracker Brothers; Milton Berle; Double Trouble, Sylvan in Paradise, Jim Nabors; Courtney Cox; Jackie Bison Show; Harry Shearer, Stan Freberg; Amen; Sherman Hemsley; favorite episode; getting cancelled by NBC because Johnny Carson retired; age ranges in sitcoms

    1h 36m

  7. 2025-12-27

    Dean Cameron (Summer School, Fast Times TV series)

    Dean Cameron joined me to discuss the RFK assassination; in a play and getting the bug; doing theater with Anthony Edwards & Eric Stoltz; movies he read for; getting a pilot The Best of Times; the sitcom Spencer; Fast Times the series; read Damone in 1982; Summer School; Carl Reiner, Kirstie Alley; crazy letters from fans; Amy Locane; favorite scene in the film; drinking vs. marijuana in the film; Prince of Bel Air TV movie; Joe Bob Briggs nomination for Bad Dreams; Ski School; ALF; They Came from Outer Space; improv; Ski School 2 with Will Sasso; Killing Box about Civil War zombies; co-starring Billy Bob Thornton and Matt LeBlanc; not seeing half his movies; Meg Tilly; starring in an unfinished film 211; It's a Shame About Ray; Trolly's Ghost Story with Anthony Edwards; replacing David Duchovny on State of Emergency; writing scripts; Hollywood Palms; Mr. Sterling series; working in computer programming; his wife is a TV editor; joining the band The Thornbirds; writing a song being so difficult; performing live is greatest thrill; meeting Penn Jillette while performing as a magician in Caesars Palace; new film, 213 Bones; pranking his dad as Chainsaw

    37 min

  8. 2025-12-20

    Roger Director (writer / producer, Hill St. Blues, Moonlighting)

    Roger Director discusses his last name; how TV is the writers medium; growing up in East Rockaway inhaling DDT; like to tell stories economically so went into journalism; covering a house fire on Guy Lombardo Blvd, jazzed him up; writing a term paper on Lenny Bruce; decided to get a job instead of more education; created Stretch the Limo Driver for Vanity Fair; Sport Magazine; friend suggests him to Steven Bocho; writes a spec Bay City Blues and gets hired; Bay City cancelled and goes to Hill Street Blues; Michael Conrad still on show; his roll call was a great way to hook in audiences; writes poem that is Estherhaus' epitaph; stories were outlined on index cards, given to writers, then polish and assembled into an episode; favorite character was Howard Hunter; mine is Belker; changed TV; Bochco writes about human condition so there's humor in the episodes; going from newspapers to Emmys in year; doesn't remember being Michael O'Donoghue's Silverman leak; did a year profiling Tim Hutton; Knicks v. Lakers fandom; NY Football Giants; going to Moonlighting; pilot go to him; show had no parameters; having crazy ideas and using them; breaking the fourth wall; Rona Barrett clip show; Camille episode with Whoopi Goldberg and slapstick ending; Maddie gets married, America outraged; creating Herbert Viola to be David's sidekick; Charles Rocket; Eva Marie Saint asks for a line reading; working with Orson Welles &Stanley Donnen; writing with Mel Brooks on Mad About You; his new novel, Killing in Havana; writing a roman a clef about his career; writing a book about the 2006 champion NY Giants; liking women's soccer; being a Mets and Yankees fan; working with Charles Floyd Johnson on NCIS; Arliss; working on a show for "people who don't watch televison"

    55 min
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About

Join NYC teacher and former stand up comedian Ian Fermaglich as he talks comedy with some of comedy's best.

Information

  • Creator
    Ian Fermaglich
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    309
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Ian Fermaglich
  • Show Website
    Ian Talks Comedy