I chat with comedian and fellow traveler in the pothole-filled road of anxiety Joe List (Netflix, The Tonight Show, Letterman, Conan) about his late night debut back in 2014 on Letterman, his new special "This Year's Material," (out April 29 on YouTube), and the best advice he received to calm green room jitters. Catch him on "Tuesdays with Stories" his weekly podcast with Mark Normand, his 2020 special "I Hate Myself" on YouTube, "Joe and Raanan Talk Movies" with Raanan Hershberg, the Comedy Cellar, and many other places that aren't McDonald's (you'll get it once you watch). Please give our interview a watch, like, and subscribe, and thank you Joe for the chat!
EMMYs, Oscars, and Tony Morrison!
I first met ABC producer and host Tony Morrison through my former roommate Deb (we’ve made a collection to no longer refer to each other as “old roommates,” since we are both spry young fawns in the forest of life), and since then every interaction has been colorful, interesting, and fun, fun, fun.
Courtesy of Plus Magazine
Good Morning America’s Senior Social Producer by day (and by day we mean like 4 am, this show tapes EARLY), Tony also hosts Disney’s D23 podcast for which he’s interviewed everyone from the passing Marvel star to Shiloh’s mother Angelia Jolie.
Courtesy of ABC/Disney
Born in the Philippines and raised in Florida, Tony first joined the ABC Disney family as a photographer on Main Street, USA, smack dab in the middle of Disney World. From there, he proved that, as Disney would put it “if you dream it, you can do it,” and arrived in NYC camera in hand to take the fashion world by storm. A twist of fate led him to a graveyard shift PA gig at CNN, then off to the iconic studios of Good Morning America, which featured pretty much every celeb you’ve ever heard of, including my and Deb’s dogs (thanks Tony and Ginger Zee) .
Courtesy of Plus Magazine, ABC’s Tony Morrison, Ginger Zee, and Amy Robach
Tony has won two EMMY awards to date and a GLAAD award for his work with the show, specifically his coverage of the outdated policy restricting gay men from donating blood which has sparked an FDA investigation on the subject.
In August 2021, Tony published a bombshell personal essay on goodmorningamerica.com in which he he revealed his HIV status and the subsequent daily struggles he’s been managing privately for the past eight years. The story went viral, and since then Tony has been named Plus Magazine’s person of the year, and featured everywhere from The Sun to People to the New York Times. Thank you for the chat Tony, and thanks for taking a look, world.
WATCH, LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, YOU’RE GREAT!
Drama, Drama, Drama with Samir Mehta!
This week I took a break from comedy to learn about the drama writing hero's journey (see what I did there?) from old friend and talented writer Samir Mehta (Narcos, The Sinner, Fear the Walking Dead). We talk about how the Narcos writers room works, the 2007 Writers' Strike and the path from school to a staff writer position on a drama. Thanks for the chat Samir!