On today’s show, we talk to writer and director Mitch Magee. With a background in visual art, Mitch makes comedic videos and short films with a very unique aesthetic. His works have been part of the New York Television Festival, Channel 101, and HBO’s Funny or Die Presents, and he’s directed videos for websites like College Humor and Funny or Die. His short film “Thank You, Cabbage” is now in pre-production.

A few weeks ago, Mitch came over to Andy's old Harlem apartment to talk about a wide range of things including: Roco and rococo, hot air balloons, New Hollywood, WTF, control issues and emotional repression, creating with constraints, privilege, as well as parents and creating your life in reaction to them.

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On this episode of Beginnings: Field Guide, we talk about casting with Katja Blichfeld. For beginning – and even seasoned – actors, the world of casting can seem incredibly random and opaque.  To walk us through the ways in which casting contributes to the creative process of a project, we talked with Katja, who has cast a number of features and shows, including the The Carrie Diaries, as well as the entire run of 30 Rock.

As well as the ins and outs of casting, Katja shares with us some stories from the early days of 30 Rock, we chat about the possibility of non-cynical networking, plus there's movie talk with the gang as we hit up Rocky, The Shining and Whore's Glory; and Mark and Andy discuss their humiliating commercial auditions in the wrap-up!

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On today's show, we talk to cartoonist Bill Griffith. Bill began his comics career in the late 1960s in New York before eventually heading out west to San Francisco to be part of the burgeoning underground comics scene in the 1970s, where he co-founded the comics anthology Arcade with Art Spiegelman. Around this time, Griffith also created his brilliant daily strip Zippy the Pinhead, which runs today in over 100 newspapers and has been compiled in numerous collections.

Earlier this month while in town for the MoCCA indie comics festival, Bill stopped by Andy's apartment in Harlem to discuss America as a nation of losers, the guilt and paranoia of influence, the Beat poets and Greenwich Village in the '50s and '60s, growing up in Levittown, having parents that lived through the depression and WWII, and the failed Zippy film.

Also, check out our 100th episode live in May at UCB East on the 7th with Sam Seder (Majority Report, Bob's Burgers), J.J. Sedelmaier (TV Funhouse), indie rock band Parquet Courts and musical guest Dan Friel (Thrill Jockey) + more! In the meantime subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. And why not follow Andy and Mark on Twitter?

Welcome to MoCCA Week on Beginnings! At the start of April, the Society of Illustrators helped us put together a live episode of the show at the annual Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) Festival, a convention in New York dedicated to indie comics, illustration and animation. We invited some of our favorite comics people on the show, and even had some surprise drop ins, and generally had a blast. Big thanks to the Society for welcoming us into the festival!

Also, check out our 100th episode live in May at UCB East on the 7th with Sam Seder (Majority Report, Bob's Burgers), J.J. Sedelmaier (TV Funhouse), indie rock band Parquet Courts and musical guest Dan Friel (Thrill Jockey) + more! In the meantime subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. And why not follow Andy and Mark on Twitter?

On today's show, we talk to filmmaker and producer Michael Gottwald. Michael graduated from Wesleyan University in 2006 and went to work on a number of film and video projects - including producing Big Freedia's video for "Y'All Get Back Now" - before beginning production on the film Beasts of the Southern Wild with writer and director Benh Zeitlin. Since it's debut last year, Beasts has racked up a number of accolades including the Caméra d'Or award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, and four Academy Award nominations at this year's Oscars.

A couple week's ago, Michael stopped by Andy's apartment in Harlem to chat with the lads. We eulogize Roger Ebert, talk about going back to visit your high school, learn about attending the Oscars, discuss the pathology of indecisiveness, and get a visit from Andy's weird landlord!

Check out our 100th episode live in May at UCB East on the 7th with Sam Seder (Majority Report, Bob's Burgers), indie rock band Parquet Courts and musical guest Dan Friel (Thrill Jockey) + more! In the meantime subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. And why not follow Andy and Mark on Twitter?

On today's show, we talk to actress and comedian Aisha Tyler. Starting stand-up in the early 1990s in San Francisco, Aisha's first break in TV came in 2001 when she began hosting Talk Soup. Since then, she's kept incredibly busy with roles on shows like Friends and Ghost Whisperer, and as Lana Kane on FX's Archer, as well as co-hosting CBS's The Talk and hosting her own hit podcast Girl on Guy. In addition to all of this, this year her second book Self-Inflicted Wounds will be released and later this summer, she'll take over as host of Whose Line Is It Anyway?

A few weeks ago, while Aisha was in town for an Archer live show, we stopped by her hotel room to discuss putting your time in and doing the work, childhood knowledge of genocide, what it's like to grow up with artistic-minded parents, and of course clone sex.

Check out our 100th episode live in May at UCB East on the 7th with some of the members of indie rock group Parquet Courts and more! In the meantime subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. And why not follow Andy and Mark on Twitter and laff it up!®

I know that a large portion of the listening audience doesn’t live in New York, but holy heck are these live shows a lot of fun. And this recording still retains a guaranteed 75-85% of that fun, so please enjoy how great  Jessi Klein (head writer of Inside Amy Schumer), Alex Karpovsky (Girls), Jake & Amir (College Humor) and our musical guest Savoir Adore were last Tuesday at the esteemed UCB East Theatre!

We’ll probably have a live show in May so look out for that, and in the meantime subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. And why not follow Andy and Mark on Twitter and laff it up!®

On today's show, we talk to writer and artist Nicholas Gurewitch. Nick began writing and drawing his comic the Perry Bible Fellowship in his college paper, and since then, the comic has appeared in a number of newspapers and magazines and was released in two anthologies by Dark Horse Comics. Nick has also won some of the top awards in comics for the Perry Bible Fellowship including the Ignatz Award, the Harvey Award and the Eisner Award.

A few weeks ago, while accidentally in town for a canceled meeting, Nick stopped by the Wrestling Team apartment to discuss Disney and classical music, memory and creativity, and transcendence and religion.

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On today's show we talk to artist Steve Keene. Based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Steve has been called the "Assembly-Line Picasso" by Time Magazine because of his unique mass-production painting style. Steve likens this method to the way musicians work, and he's painted the album art for many indie rock bands, including Pavement, The Apples in Stereo, The Silver Jews and many others.

A few weeks ago, we met up with Steve at his studio space, and got in deep about painting as performance, the satisfaction of doing actual labor, and taking your inspiration from musicians. We also got to see his workspace up close and get a real feel for how he makes art. It was a treat!

Subscribe on iTunes and follow Andy and Mark on Twitter! See a live episode on April 2nd at UCB East at 8pm comedian Jessi Klein, Jake and Amir of College Humor, Alex Karpovsky from Girls and music from Savoir Adore!

On today's show, we talk to UK comedian Lou Sanders. Based in London, Lou has been performing stand-up for many years, with a number of appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe, where she had one of the top 10 jokes of the 2012 Festival. She also writes for TV and has worked on two series of C4’s Stand up for the Week, as well as BBC3’s Laughtershock & a number of pilots.

A few weeks ago, while she was in town for a few days doing shows, Lou stopped by the Wrestling Team apartment to have the most sincere recorded conversation ever. We talk about divorce, meditation, adult wants, and we debut our new CREEPIEST segment ever!

Subscribe on iTunes and follow Andy and Mark on Twitter! See a live episode on April 2nd at UCB East at 8pm comedian Jessi Klein, Jake and Amir of College Humor and more!