It's A Hustle
By Joe Gerics
It's A HustleJul 04, 2019
Beecher - Episode 127
Clare Livington - Episode 126
Emilio Savone - Episode 124
Candi Clare - Episode 123
Stosh Mikita - Episode 122
Eric Donnelly - Episode 121
The Alternate Routes first burst onto the scene in 2005 with their breakthrough album Good and Reckless and True. They released several albums on Vanguard Records and on their own, toured extensively, and relentlessly refined their craft. They have collaborated with such seemingly disparate artists as singer-songwriter Patti Griffin, director Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right), and guitarist Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket. They’ve performed on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” and have been repeat guests on NPR’s “Mountain Stage.”
Beecher - Episode 119
Paul Virzi - Episode 118
Paul has toured with Bill Burr in some of the country's most iconic theaters including, Madison Square Garden, The Chicago Theatre and Carnegie Hall. Every week you can hear him host his very popular podcast The Virzi Effect.
Paul grew up in the suburbs, outside of New York City. He loves his family, cigars and having pointless sports arguments with his friends. He never fails in keeping the laughs coming and making the audience feel comfortable with his hard-hitting personal approach. He is fun to watch and has a stage presence that is second to none.
Tommy DeFilippo and the End of @TrumbullMemes- Episode 117
Christian Finnegan - Episode 116
Jeremy Pinsly and Michael Barker - Episode 115
Michael Barker joined Westport Country Playhouse in September 2016 from Mill Valley, CA, where he was the managing director of Marin Theatre Company.
Previously, Barker was general manager of Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach, CA, and managing director for the Los Angeles classical theater ensemble The Antaeus Company. Before moving to California, Barker was associate managing director at Yale Repertory Theatre and managing director of Yale Summer Cabaret, where he produced the first annual Carlotta Festival of New Plays. He was Seattle Repertory Theatre’s 2008 Managing Director Fellow.
Barker holds an MFA in theater management from Yale School of Drama and an MBA from Yale School of Management. At Yale, he was the recipient of the Daniel and Helene Sheehan Scholarship for theater management and a Kosciusko Scholarship for outstanding students of Polish descent. He currently serves as vice president of the board of the Yale School of Management Alumni Association.
Prior to graduate school, he was associate director of marketing for Court Theatre in Chicago, and also worked with Goodman Theatre, American Theater Company, Sansculottes Theater Company, and The Playground Theater.
Jeremy is ballsy. A risk-taker. The type of guy who won't take no for an answer (unless you mean it in which case he'll totally respect your boundaries). After growing up in Nashville, TN, studying finance at the University of Georgia and working in marketing in Dallas, Jeremy realized there is more to life than helping State Farm sell insurance, so he quit his corporate job (like a boss) and moved to New York to become a comedian. Through countless hours of grueling labor and an endless supply of Tony Robbins DVDs, he made himself a regular at clubs all over the city and sells-out venues across the country from Zanies in Nashville to Second City in Chicago. He's a writer for Funny or Die, a 6-time roast battle champion, and he currently runs the city's best monthly charity based comedy show, "Stand Up and Save the World" at the New York Comedy Club. So yeah, he's basically a hero.
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Allie Zisfein - Episode 114
Dan Kalwhite - Episode 113
Bret Raybould - Episode 111
Bret’s festival credits include Bridgetown (2017), SF Sketchfest (2018), New York Comedy Festival (2017), Skankfest (2017), Baltimore Comedy Festival (2017).
Shaun Murphy - Episode 110
Candi Clare - Episode 109
Candi is the Director of Development at New York Comedy Club and a co-host with Steve Lipman on the podcast Figuring it Out.
Beecher and Dan Kalwhite - Episode 108
Beecher has performed in the Rogue Island Comedy Festival, the World Series of Comedy, the Park Slope Comedy Festival, the Brooklyn Comedy Festival, Skankfest, & the Boston Comedy Festival. He was the winner of the Connecticut Comedy Festival. Beecher's recorded segments for the Wendy Williams Show, the Danish news network TV2, & MTV2. He can also be heard on SiriusXM radio, NPR, & appears in 'The Get Down' on Netflix.
Born in Connecticut, and now residing in Connecticut, Daniel has been involved in the entertainment business since he was a fat 3rd grader. At 8 years old Dan starred as Paul the Paleontologist in the off-broadway smash: "Where'd the Dinosaurs Go?!" and played drums in various funk and punk bands over the years.
A self-confessed film geek, Daniel finally got out from behind the drum kit and got involved in stand-up in 2009. His big break came when he met the lead singer of Soul Asylum at a Bar in New Haven, Connecticut.
In the last year, Daniel has shared the stage with some of the funniest people in comedy & would probably like to share your stage too.
Ken Tuccio - Episode 107
Ken Tuccio is the founder/owner of Best Trivia Ever, the area's number one source for bar trivia. Prior to that Ken was a radio host on 95.9 FM, and the host and creator of the Welcome to Connecticut podcast.
Guy Philoche - Episode 106
For the past 15 years, Guy Stanley Philoche has been attracting international attention with his work and his impressive roster of solo shows. As an artist, Guy’s palette is strong and sophisticated. His layering technique has created a body of paintings so richly textured that one can hardly hold back from reaching out and touching the canvas. In fact, it is the artist’s intent and wish that the viewer will follow their desire to reach out and feel the different textures of his canvases. His work is for the viewer’s pleasure, to be fully enjoyed from a tactile standpoint, and he has varnished the canvases for exactly that reason.
Matt Schwartzer - Episode 105
Matt is a writer/comedian/musician trapped in the body of a slightly less attractive writer/comedian/musician.
Michael Barker - Episode 104
Previously, Barker was general manager of Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach, CA, and managing director for the Los Angeles classical theater ensemble The Antaeus Company. Before moving to California, Barker was associate managing director at Yale Repertory Theatre and managing director of Yale Summer Cabaret, where he produced the first annual Carlotta Festival of New Plays. He was Seattle Repertory Theatre’s 2008 Managing Director Fellow.
Barker holds an MFA in theater management from Yale School of Drama and an MBA from Yale School of Management. At Yale, he was the recipient of the Daniel and Helene Sheehan Scholarship for theater management and a Kosciusko Scholarship for outstanding students of Polish descent. He currently serves as vice president of the board of the Yale School of Management Alumni Association.
Prior to graduate school, he was associate director of marketing for Court Theatre in Chicago, and also worked with Goodman Theatre, American Theater Company, Sansculottes Theater Company, and The Playground Theater.
Madison Malloy - Episode 103
She has also been seen on Fox, Dish Network, DirectTV, NBC and much more. You can hear Madison every week on her podcast Next to Madison on iTunes, Spotify, and all other podcast platforms.
Marc Gerber - Episode 102
Dan Kalwhite and Stosh Mikita - Episode 101
Karina Strobl Gerics - Episode 100
Jeremy Pinsly - Episode 99
Mike Lebovitz - Episode 98
Mike cut his teeth in Chicago (not as painful as it sounds), where he was a regular at Zanies Comedy Club, The Laugh Factory and Comedy Bar Chicago. He co-founded the popular showcase, Comedians You Should Know, which he brought to New York City in 2016. It has since become the weekly go-to spot to see comedy legends and up-and-comers rock the same mic.
Internationally, Mike has offended nostrils in Montreal as a "New Face" of the 2013 Just For Laughs, and he won The Montreux Comedy Festival competition in Switzerland. He’s been featured on NBC’s Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central, and HBO’s The Deuce. Look for his debut album, LEBO, in early 2019 on Stand Up Records.
Andy Fiori - Episode 97
He has performed at the Montreal Just For Laughs Festival, JFL 42 in Toronto and the New York Comedy Festival where he was a finalist in New York's Funniest. He has made numerous appearances on Comedy Central and in 2016 he was honored to travel abroad to perform for the Troops in the Middle East.
Andrew is also an accomplished radio host and producer. He is the host of The Raw Report on SiriusXM and is also a regular on The Bonfire, Bennington, and is the Executive Producer of such shows as Come to Papa with Tom Papa and The Kelly Carlin Show.
His debut album, Plan B, was released in 2016 through Comedy Records and named one of the Best Albums of the Year by SiriusXM.
Brendan Sagalow -Episode 96
Brendan has written for MTV's Joking Off, been a featured guest on many Sirius XM shows, such as The Erik Negal show, The Check Spot Live with Emma Willmann, Him and Sam, and Bennington on Raw Dog Radio. Brendan was the winner of the 2015 New York Comedy Club Comedy Competition, and featured in The Rhode Island Comedy Festival in Newport, RI. Skankfest, NYC, and Red Clay Comedy Fest in Atlanta, Georgia.
You can also listen to Brendan every week as the host of his own podcast, The Stupid Little Podcast, available on iTunes now.
Dan Altano - Episode 95
Walker Hays - Episode 94
Usama Siddiquee - Episode 93
Usama Siddiquee is a Bengali-American stand-up comedian and actor based in New York. He’s the kind of comic you want to follow right now, so you can totally gloat to your friends about how you were totally into him before he got huge. And then they’ll get really jealous of your impeccable foresight and superior taste.
His act is an energetic (bordering on frenetic) and intelligent (bordering on genius) romp through his own life experiences. Family! Friends! Sex! Religion! Sex with religious friends! It’s all there, and Usama slings jokes on these topics and more with rapid-fire charisma and hilarity.
And if you thought that last paragraph was self-serving, here is a shameless list of Usama’s achievements. He most recently traveled to Montreal as one of the New Faces at Just For Laughs in 2018. Shortly after he was passed at the world-famous Comedy Cellar in New York. He made his standup television debut on BET's 50 Central. He was a finalist for the 2017 NY's Funniest Competition at Caroline's; a finalist in the 2017 NBC Standup Competition; 1st place winner of the 2016 Laughing Devil Cup Comedy Festival in New York; the 1st place winner of the 2015 Yonkers Comedy Festival as well as the 1st place winner of the 2015 Make Me Laugh Albany Comedy Festival. Usama was also featured this year on videos for NBC, Buzzfeed, Refinery29, The Scene, Mic.com, FusionTV, and Huffington Post.
P.S. Usama can probably beatbox better than you can.
Mike Feeney - Episode 92
Mike has been featured on NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly, Funny or Die, Sirius XM, Fox’s Laughs, TruTV's Rachel Dratch's Late Night Snack, The Chive, ABC's Right This Minute and Food Network's Restaurant Stakeout. He has also been a part of the New York Comedy Festival, Cape Fear Comedy Festival, Rogue Island Comedy Festival, Skankfest, Hoboken Comedy Festival, and the Laughing Devil Comedy Festival.
His sketch Low Battery won "Best Micro Short" at the Houston Comedy Film Festival. His other comedy shorts have been featured in the Williamsburg Independent Film Festival and regularly on the front page of Funny or Die.
Mike has studied at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (UCB) and The Peoples Improv Theatre (P.I.T.). Currently, Mike performs all over the U.S. and is the co-host of Irish Goodbye Podcast.
Turner Sparks - Episode 91
If you want to listen to him talk every week, subscribe to the Lost In America Podcast he hosts with Michael Ira Kaplan.
Jason Salmon - Episode 90
Shaun Murphy- Episode 89
Frank Liotti - Episode 87
Ben Rosenfeld - Episode 86
Beecher - Episode 85
Sloane Barbour - Episode 84
Tommy DeFilippo - Episode 83
Beecher (and Gillian!) - Episode 82
Dave Juskow - Episode 81
Turner Sparks - Episode 80
If you want to listen to him talk every week, subscribe to the Lost In America Podcast he hosts with Michael Ira Kaplan.
Susan Gerics - Episode 79
Dan Kalwhite - Episode 78
Richie Redding - Episode 77
Beecher - Episode 76
Jared Freid - Episode 75
He’s a regular at the Comedy Cellar, Caroline’s on Broadway, Gotham, Stand Up New York and Comix at Mohegan Sun. He also had the honor of performing for the 2017 “New Faces” showcase at the 35th annual Just For Laughs festival in Montréal.
His television presence has been amping up. He’s currently starring in the Snapchat series “How Low Can You Go?” He’s recently been featured on MTV2’s new series “Vidiots” as well as TruTV’s “NFL Full Contact,” MTV’s “Failosophy,” NBC’s “The Today Show,” NFL Network’s “Top Ten,” and AXS TV’s “Gotham Comedy Live.”
His weekly JTrain Podcast is booming and now touring live around the country. It’s already at over 450,000 listeners per month and regularly in the iTunes top 100. The show has a cult following of loyal fans. It’s been called “A Dear Abbey for Dudes” which is why both men and women tune in religiously. Additionally, he co-hosts a modern dating podcast called “U Up?” with Jordana Abraham of Betches where they discuss their take on modern dating with issues ranging from apps to hookups to relationships.
Jared’s fans also seek out his voice in the online publishing world. He’s written for TotalFratMove, BroBible, Betches, LuvThis and HeTexted. His columns delve into everything from sports to “The Bachelor” to the pitfalls of dating in the information age. His writing has both sides of the aisle nodding their head while thinking, “I’ve been on the toilet way too long.”