Kinda Sorta Maybe Like A Podcast

February 17 saw the return of metal titans Soulfly to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Along for "The Summoning" tour were thrashers Toxic Holocaust, and on this date we also received a metal barrage from X Method, Bears with Technology, and Cause of Death. Local writer/performer William O'Donnell had the chance to chat with Soulfly's legendary leader Max Cavalera in what was less an interview -- and more two metalheads nerding out about the genre, its bands, and Max's unending mission to blend every possible sub-genre of metal with world music sounds. His bandmates and wife/manger Gloria can be heard shuffling around them as they can tell: once you get Max going about these topics, it's going to be a while!

Comic Gavin Matts has had a pretty good last couple years. Since being named SiriusXM Canada's "Next Top Comic" in 2017, he's made a string of TV appearances in both Canada (The Stand-Up Show with Katherine Ryan, The Halifax Comedy Festival) and the United States (Conan, Comedy Central's Stand-Up Featuring). During that stretch, he also released a comedy mixtape called Premature and moved away from his hometown of Vancouver -- first to L.A. and then to New York City. This month, he's heading back home to Canada for shows in Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Vancouver. Before the mini tour, he chatted on the phone from New York with our own Paul Little about the opportunities he's had recently, the insecurities of comedians, and what he's looking forward to with the upcoming shows. Catch Gavin live in Winnipeg on November 12, Edmonton November 13, Vancouver November 14-17, or all over NYC after that.

Hawksley Workman has been making albums since the late 90s (his first full-length, For Him and the Girls, came out in 1999) and he's been releasing new music every year or 2 since then. He's rarely been one to stick to the same vibe record-to-record, jumping between styles and influences in a way that he says was likely frustrating for record execs, his touring band, and perhaps even some of his fans over the years. However, he's always been a unique and singular artist, and his longtime fans have never doubted the authenticity of his music, whether it's stripped-down folk, high-energy synth-pop, or anything in between. Besides his many solo releases and tour dates around the world, he's also served as a producer for some of Canada's best folk and pop acts, wrote a stage musical with accompanying soundtrack, and has put out a pair of records as drummer and singer with the band Mounties. More recently, he released a brand new solo record ("Median Age Wasteland") earlier this year, just yesterday put out a sin

Born and raised in Windsor, Ontario, New York-based comedian Dave Merheje has had a pretty stellar 2019. He started the year off with a half-hour Netflix stand-up special as part of their Comedians of the World series, popped up as a series regular on the first season of the critically-acclaimed Hulu series Ramy (available in Canada on Crave), and he won the Comedy Album to the Year at the 2019 Juno Awards for his album Good Friend Bad Grammar. This in addition to performing around the U.S. and Canada, as well as wrapping up a long run last year as a recurring character on the popular CBC sitcom Mr. D. While back in Toronto -- the city where he started stand-up -- for a series of headlining gigs at JFL42, Andrew Lizotte got the chance to catch up with Dave to talk about the wild year he's had, how he's grown on stage, how his dad reacted to his Juno win, and his new love for Lulu Lemon pants.

Seán Cullen is one of those rare Canadian performers who has fans across any age group. People were excited to shake his hand and give him a hug as he sauntered to the stage at one of his recent JFL42 shows. For followers of the comedian's long career, the show at Toronto's Comedy Bar was a decidedly deeper and more intimate evening. As a comedian who is well known for pure silly, he was refreshingly open about... himself, for the first time. Cullen bared his soul, speaking to struggles with loneliness, depression, and weight. But it's still Seán Cullen, so it took the form of a song called "Shit-storm", wearing ghost pants, and reflections on dating a raccoon. The crowd was safe in his silly;he even stopped to have a conversation with a criminal defense lawyer about the pros and cons of depression vs. homicide. It was honest, and present, and felt just for those in the room that night. Much like the conversation he and Andrew Lizotte had last week in advance of his JFL42 appearances. (Andrew wrote this int

Robby Hoffman is an original comedy voice whose writing and delivery on stage puts her at the top of the stand-up game. Her bit for The Chris Gethard Show with Queer Eye's Antoni Porowski is one of the funniest things on YouTube, and her other television writing -- which includes CBC/IFC's Baroness Von Sketch Show -- has even won her a Daytime Emmy for Odd Squad on PBS. Last September, she recorded her Crave TV stand-up special, Robby Hoffman: I'm Nervous, at Toronto's JFL42. Robby is returning to Montreal -- where she used to live and briefly began her stand-up career -- for the Just for Laughs Festival as part of the great line-up for "The Ethnic Show" (with shows through Thursday, July 25) and with her own "The Early Evening Show with Robby Hoffman", a unique take on the late night comedy format taking place at the Montreal Improv on Monday, July 22 and Friday, July 26. She spoke with Paul Little about the development of her talk show, her experiences at other festivals in Canada, the difference between

Nick Nemeroff is a Montreal comic who has been a mainstay in the Toronto comedy scene for the past few years, winning Best Newcomer and Best Breakout Comic at the 2017 and 2018 I Heart Joke Awards. His comedy has been described as "aggressively deadpan" -- and if you're wondering what that means, just watch his set from last fall on Conan. It's a joy. After visiting Winnipeg for the Oddblock Comedy Festival a couple years ago, Nick is making his first appearance at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival this weekend. Paul Little chatted with him ahead of his visit, and they spoke about his "Square Pegs" gala taping, his experience on Conan, and what's in store now that he's made the move to Los Angeles.

Chris Gethard is comedy's favourite underdog. He is the fine wine that other comedians cannot recommend enough. His years of study as an improviser at the UCB Theatre in New York have made him a great listener and a truly empathetic storyteller. During this interview in advance of his appearances at JFL42, Chris gave Andrew Lizotte some of the most emotionally open and thoughtful answers of his career -- all while driving! Chris is a ringmaster of chaos. The man loves a sincerely weird experience. His beloved program, The Chris Gethard Show -- which has run on NYC cable access and a pair of basic cable networks -- is best described as if early MTV went truly punk and had no artistic censorship. His podcast, Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People, gives you honest and thoughtful looks into the lives of complete strangers. Chris also released an HBO stand-up special last year, Career Suicide, which gets us to laugh and understand his struggle with mental health. He is a complex and interesting man. If this i

Shortly after Donald Trump decided to run for President, improviser and actor Anthony Atamanuik -- a veteran of UCB Theatre in New York who had worked on 30 Rock for years and wrote for and appeared in a number of other comedy television shows and specials -- was asked to do a one-off show as Trump after playing an exaggerated version of then-candidate Trump in an improv scene. That original live show led to more shows, an eventual "Trump vs. Bernie" debate tour alongside James Adomian as Bernie Sanders, appearances on @midnight and FuseTV as the character, and then after the seemingly unlikely election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States, starring in a Trump-themed talk show on Comedy Central called The President Show. In advance of a pair of apperances as Donald Trump for this year's JFL42 in Toronto, Paul Little spoke with Atamanuik over the phone about his career before taking on the Trump character, getting into the mind of someone like Trump, his overall take on the state of politics

Greg's podcast, The Smartest Man in the World, is an hour and a half of crowd work and riffing off of the headlines. It's also consistently very funny. It's a style of performer/audience relationship that harkens back to the days of Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, and Joan Rivers; however, the format, subject matter, and approach are all modern. Like Greg himself, it combines the technical proficiency of an older generation, but continues to stay effortlessly relevant. He's also one of the most apt social critics working in stand-up comedy today. Don't believe us? The amount of issues that get touched on in this less than 15-minute interview with Andrew Lizotte is dense. His new album is out in October, his book is now out in paperback (The Smartest Book in the World), and he's performing stand-up and recording his podcast at JFL42 this week. Go enjoy him.

Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld are the writers, actors, and editors behind the award-winning webseries Jake and Amir, which began while the pair were writers at College Humor. In 2013, they started an advice podcast called If I Were You, and over the years, they have done special live recordings of the podcast around the U.S. Now they're bringing the podcast north of the border to Canada, with live shows in Winnipeg, Calgary, and Vancouver. In advance of these shows, our own Ian Bawa spoke to the comedy duo about the questions they choose to give advice on, where new segments developed from, if their current Vimeo series Lonely and Horny, and what audiences should expect going to a live recording of If I Were You.

In the fall of 2017, Toronto comic Courtney Gilmour was coming off the biggest professional accolade of her comedy career: being named the co-winner (along with Montreal's DJ Mausner) of the Homegrown Comics competition at Just for Laughs Festival. The win included a spot among the 42 feature acts at September's JFL42 comedy festival in her hometown. In the midst of JFL42, Andrew Lizotte sat down with Courtney for a long chat about her Homegrown win, her new CBC animated web series, and religion. The latter topic is the subject of her own podcast, So Help Me Pod, and in reality, Andrew just commandered her theme so he could sing Bible camp songs (which he swears is way cooler than it sounds). Since the interview took place, Courtney's friends and family have started a GoFundMe for her to be able to afford her #DreamLeg. She was born without both hands and her right leg above the knee, and the state-of-the-art prosthetic leg she'd love to have currently costs $100,000. The Toronto comedy community has steppe

Rhys Darby may be best-known to audiences as Murray Hewitt on the acclaimed HBO series Flight of the Conchords, but the New Zealand Army veteran is also an accomplished stand-up comic, having worked all over the globe for nearly 2 decades and put out 3 stand-up specials. He's also starred in films such as Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi's brilliant vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows and the upcoming Jumanji reboot. A veteran of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Montreal's Just for Laughs, Darby is now in the middle of JFL's Alternative Comedy Tour across Canada alongside headliner T.J. Miller. Back in September, during a visit to Toronto for JFL42, Andrew Lizotte sat down with him to cover a wide range of topics including show preparation, Conchords, his interest in cryptozoology, and his summiting of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

After becoming a comedy and film superstar in France, 46-year-old Morocco-born Gad Elmaleh has spent the last couple years based out of New York, starting comedy in a brand new language and paying his dues again in rooms like the Comedy Cellar and Joe's Pub in NYC, and other smaller clubs across the United States. Of course, being an established performer -- even in another language -- meant Elmaleh's anglophone rise has been a bit quicker than for most comics. Building off of appearances on Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and late night shows like CONAN and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the one-time Quebeccer is now playing theatres around Canada and the U.S., and is on the verge of recording his first English-language comedy special. In advance of some Canadian stops on his "Oh My Gad" tour, Paul Little got the chance to speak to Elmaleh about his original interest in performing and comedy after he moved from Morocco to Quebec, his discovery of Seinfeld, his recent adjustments to b

Bronx-born comic, writer, and actress Gina Brillon made her first TV appearance over 10 years ago on Comedy Central's Live at Gotham. Since then, she's appeared on Chelsea Lately, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The View, and the CBS sitcom Kevin Can Wait in a recurring role. She also had a feature role in Gabriel Iglesias' comedy film, The Fluffy Movie, and put out a one-hour special, Pacifically Speaking. This fall, Brillon has hit the road north of the border, as comedy powerhouse Just For Laughs has teamed her up with JFL tour mainstays Alonzo Bodden and Sugar Sammy for a cross-Canada tour. Paul Little spoke with Brillon shortly before the tour began, and we talked about her absolute love of stand-up comedy, her experiences working in TV, her plans for the future, and why she was excited to hit the road with Bodden and Sammy.

SheDot Festival ("Toronto's Festival of Funny Women") is in its fourth year, and has grown from essentially a local festival in its first year to one featuring performers from all across Canada and the United States. SheDot co-producer Karen O'Keefe (who now runs the festival alongside founder Martha O'Neill) has been involved since its inception, and has also been performing stand-up for over 10 years along with other festival appearances and a writing stint on This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Paul Little chatted with O'Keefe at a cafe across the street from SheDot's home base for the weekend, Comedy Bar, mere hours before this year's festival began. They spoke about the chaos of co-producing a festival, SheDots beginnings, future plans for the festival, some of the shows to check out if you're in Toronto this weekend (the festival runs through Sunday, May 7), and her own writing and acting aspirations.

Rebecca Reeds started her comedy career in Ottawa, performing at open mics and eventually being part of an Ottawa Fringe Festival show. She's since made the move to Toronto, where there are not only far more opportunities for her to get stage time and hone her craft, but where she can perform alongside touring comics who regularly hit up the city (such as a recent opening spot for Matt Braunger at Toronto's Comedy Bar). Reeds has previously performed at the SheDot Festival and JFL 42 -- as well as made appearances on CBC Radio and SiriusXM -- but she's appearing at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival for the first time this year. Paul Little chatted with her about the early part of her career in Ottawa, the difficulties of moving to a much bigger comedy city like Toronto, her growth as a comic over the last couple years, and what she expects from her first big TV gala experience.

Tim Gray and Matt Nightingale are both veterans of the Winnipeg stand-up comedy scene, and this year they're both a part of the local contingent at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival. Besides their accomplishments as stand-up comics (Tim's first comedy album comes out this June, and Matt is a regular host at Rumor's Comedy Club), they're also members of the sketch troupe HUNKS. Their work with HUNKS -- which also features Dana Smith, Quinn Greene, and Rory Fallis -- has taken them to festivals like Just for Laughs NorthWest, San Francisco Sketchfest, and the Montreal Sketch Festival. (They also have their own very funny podcast!) Last weekend, Paul Little sat down with Tim and Matt to talk about their growth as stand-ups, their early success with HUNKS, and a whole lot more fascinating (and ridiculous) stuff. It's our longest podcast yet, but it's also a whole lot of fun!

Amanda Brooke Perrin is a veteran of the Toronto comedy scene who recently moved to Los Angeles. Approaching 10 years as a stand-up comic, Perrin has appeared at festivals like JFL 42 and Bridgetown, has appeared on Match Game and written for This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and just released her debut comedy album (AKA Randy, available on iTunes) last summer. Just prior to her first visit to the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, Paul Little caught up with Perrin while doing a string of shows in B.C. They chatted about making the jump from her hometown of Calgary to Toronto earlier in her career, the comedy writing opportunities in Canada, what she's looking forward to about Winnipeg, and why Colin Mochrie should watch his back!

Whether you've heard his stand-up, read his articles for The Onion and The AV Club or watched @midnight, chances are you've know comedian Dan Telfer's work. Dan Telfer joins Aaron Demeter at the Oddblock Comedy Festival to talk about his work on @midnight, gives his opinions on living in L.A. versus his native Chicago, and opens up about his second bout with cancer.