Ian Talks Comedy Ian Fermaglich

Brandon Maggart joins me and discusses radio in the 1940's; how acting in a school play made him more verbal and popular with teachers; being a singer; going to Sewanee; getting invited to come to NY; going to University of Tennessee; singing and DJing; leaving the Air Force; his opera career; being a guide at NBC; working with Cathryn Damon, Renee Taylor (in Lil' Abner) and Sherry Britton in Top Banana; making his film debut in Armored Command with Burt Reynolds; guest starring in The Defenders, Naked City, and Car 54; doing Barefoot in the Park with Vivian Vance and her paying for his singing lesson; getting so drunk he jumps in the Atlantic Ocean to sober up and almost dies; performing in New Faces of 1968 and having it be old hat compared to Hair; learning burlesque from Sherry Britton; being in the cast of the 1st season of Sesame Street; being Tony nominated for co-starring with Lauren Bacall in Applause; almost making the original cast of SNL; his holiday horror film, Christmas Evil; his role that was cut short from Dressed to Kill; costarring with Robin Williams in The World According to Garp; Jennifer Slept Here; Brothers; Chicken Soup; Fiddler on the West Hollywood Roof; Brothers tackles AIDS; Philip Charles Mackenzie; do you have to be smart to be stupid?; acting in The Wedding Band, the first interracial play with Ruby Dee; being in a minstrel show America Be Seated with Lou Gossett; working in theatre gave him the privilege to work and befriend homosexuals; Purlie with Sherman Helmsley; guest starring in Adventures of Brisco County, Jr, Bakersfield PD, and Married with Children; starring in Spiritual Warrior; hurting his back and being unable to audition; time recovering from surgery leads him to writing and painting; his books length; he knew nothing of his father after he died; his book leaves his footprints

Ian Gurvitz joined me to discuss the derivation of his name; growing up in Plainview; TV he watched including Laugh-In and Batman; William Daniels; going to Ithaca College; moving to NYC and writing for comics; getting hired to write for short lived sitcom A Fine Romance; selling a Wonder Years; writing The Great TV and Movie Quizbook; creating Normal Life with Moon Unit and Dweezil Zappa; writing a Get a Life; creating Charlie Hoover; paying "Where's Sam?"; inspired by a Married with Children episode; joining Wings for a a six week tryout and lasting 6 years; how The Contest episode of Seinfeld deflated the writers room; hiring Amy Yasbeck; writing an episode while his mother is dying in the next room; writing his 1st episode with Kirstie Alley as Rebecca Howe; music rights; Tony Danza Show; watching Ted Danson become Becker; episode he wrote "Crosstalk"; the genesis of Becker; his film LA Blues; working on The Exes; keeping a journal while in development and publishing it as "Hello, Lied the Agent"; why is TV better; business model of TV has changed with streaming; The Bear; Only Murders in the Building; We Were the Lucky Ones; The Day the Crown Cried; his first book, Deconstructing God about religion; his second Dumbf*ckistan, about Sarah Palin's rise to power; anti-college stance of people who went to Ivy League schools; intelligence of other countries; Trump's crowd size; Nixon; Democrats can't brand or fight; Roger Stone; Roy Cohn; Democrats are pushing people away; don't be a dick

Comedian Trent Mabry joins me to discuss his podcast Echo Chamber; Rosie Ruiz: MLB umpires; watching Seinfeld at 6 made him want to be a stand up; his first and second times performing; differences between Indiana and NYC open mic's; importance of social media; not burning material; Norm MacDonald and Gilbert Gottfried; day jobs; winning Indiana's Funniest comedian and that driving him to come to NYC; supportive parents; comedy was the only thing he ever wanted to do; his old podcast where he interviewed comedians; Jeff Altman; no set comedy topics; getting bits to flow together; booking guests and guests he'd want; ultimate goal is a late night show; favorite host being Letterman; Seinfeld NYC vs. Actual NYC; Indiana; his father being a farmer; my great-grandfathers job selling lightbulbs on horseback in NYC; SNL; inability to act; David Spade; being an old soul and watching early TV; streaming doesn't introduce people to old shows; using COVID to watch Sopranos; Rockford Files; Par Bircher; Mark Normand; joke tellers vs. story tellers; playing with silence; alcohol; almost fighting a heckler; getting booked at a Chamber of Commerce dinner; watching the flow of the show he'll perform at; Rusty Kuntz; touchy jokes; recoding a set for SiriusXM

Karyl Miller joined me and talked about growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the late 1950's; being a loner; listening to radio and begging her father to buy a TV; going to Cal Arts for a summer program; not going to college; going to night fashion school; mom wanting her to marry a nice Jewish man; being inspired by Lily Tomlin; wrote spec scripts while designing dresses; met Garry Marshall; got a job writing interstitials for Love, American Style; wrote for a dress designer sitcom called Needles and Pins; her spec script got her hired for Lily Tomlin specials and season 3 of the Mary Tyler Moore Show; writing Lily Tomlin's monologues; turning down Lorne Michaels' offer for SNL; writing for Cher's 1975 variety show; her first MTM "Rhoda's Sisters Wedding" and the famous letter sequence; her other episode "WJM Tries Harder"; writing for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice; writing a freelance episode of Karen; writing a Maude and being afraid of Bea Arthur; being brought into Diff'rent Strokes when Charlotte Rae wants a female writer and being fired after 9 days; teaming up with Richard Pryor to write a Sanford & Son that didn't get filmed; finishing writing a pilot Richard started; working on the Erma Bombeck sitcom Maggie; being picketed while going in to write Love, Sidney; writing an episode of the Bea Arthur sitcom Amandas; being a TV snob and not writing for "bad" shows; the nightmare that was The Cosby Show; Madeline Kahn; Kate & Allie; Foley Square; being on staff on My Sister Sam and fighting with Dianne English over an episode where Pam Dawber has an affair; writing an episode of David Rules; her career being hurt by turning down shows she didn't like and the shows she dd not hiring women; turning down The Love Boat; how doodling on scripts led to cartooning and creating her own font; becoming a political cartoonist and being the President of the Southern California Cartoonist Society

Ferris Butler and his biographer D.B. Frick joined me to discuss his garage band version of SNL "Waste Meet News"; his love for Sid Caesar and Ernie Kovacs; Brooklyn in the 50's and 60's; his pilot for the Vintage Seltzer Hour with Michael O'Donoghue and Garrett Morris; going to NYU film school and being taught by Martin Scorsese and classmates with Billy Crystal; creating Waste Meat News; having Radames Pera on; the budget; New York Magazine says Waste Meat is being copied by SNL; getting hired by Jean Doumanian; how the crew was excited for new season. but the press was already hostile; not getting anything on the premiere; getting Leather Weather on the Malcolm McDowell show; writing the tag to Eddie Murphy's first appearance; writing Tort-U-Matic and her monologue for Jamie Lee Curtis; co-writing Reagan Co for the Robert Hays episode; Howard Stern has beef about his Leather Weather Girl vs. Ferris' sketch; writing the Kung Fu prostitution sketch and slipping a watersports joke by the censors; the difference between head writers Mason Williams and Stevens and Moore; writing one joke for Weekend Update; Brian Doyle-Murray; Bill hosts; he was recommended by Letty Aronson; more Bill Murray stories; is Ferris Butler, Ferris Bueller - Del Close wanted to do a movie about him, Quentin Tarantino believes it; writing "Prison Confession" sketch for Ray Sharkey episode; writing a sketch that got cut at dress; writing the "Big Brother" sketch for Deborah Harry episode; the re-evaluation of season 6; Name That Sin; musical guests; saving his sketches; not being surprised Dick Ebersol didn't as him back; not getting credit for writing for SNL; not being invited to any anniversary; Waste Meat News is in the Paley Center for Media

Jeff Altman and I discuss growing up in Syracuse; his father, Arthur, teaching him slight of hand magic; learning more at Johns Hopkins; moving to LA and going to the Magic Castle; trying out at the Comedy Store; doing a comedy album with Denny Johnston; his Carson impression and two times he met him; doing his voice on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman; doing voices on Norman Lear shows and Archie Bunker's Place; Celeste Holm, who his uncle discovered; his year living off income from being on Merv Griffin; Starland Vocal Band Show; guest appearances on Mork and Mindy and WKRP; playing Huey Hogg on Dukes of Hazard; getting the co-hosting job on Pink Lady; being told they spoke perfect English; working with Sid Caesar and Jim Varney; impressions; Rich Little; talking to Johnny right before he announced his retirement; his on-air prank calls to Letterman; Tim Thomerson; the origins of butt steak; being in the Israeli Candid Camera and almost getting arrested; his appearance on Night Court; his tough times being a cast member on Nurses; hosting Sunday Comics; Franklin Ajaye; doing an episode for the troops in the Gulf War; impersonating Bob Hope to Brooke Shields; his "dad" character; his album, I'll Flip You Like a Cheese Sandwich"; having Seinfeld ask him to be in The Bee Movie; retiring from comedy and going full time into sleight of hand; getting married to a girl he knew from high school and moving to Raleigh, NC; Max Alexander; Pink Lady covers and original songs