Thanks For Having Me

"Everyone's got a podcast nowadays," someone once told me. "First it was blogs, then it was Tumblr..." Truer words couldn't have been said, especially when it comes to my creative friends who are killing it lately with fun shows you can listen to right now.

And yes, I may be using this as an opportunity to shamelessly plug the podcasts I've guest-appeared on, pretending to be the pop culture pundit I proclaim to be, but still, give 'em a listen, won't you?

First, there's Very Special Television, where I join a panel of guys who bring on a special guest to cover "very special episodes" of sitcoms from the 80s and 90s. For my installment, we discussed "Crime and Punishment," the Season 5 episode of the Roseanne that tackles domestic abuse. (Poor Aunt Jackie!) Check it out here.

Next up, on My Vietnam Podcast, I chat with writer-director-producer Ringo Le, who is a champion for traditionally underrepresented voices. We talk about our hopes for 2021, my Emmy win, general industry chatter, and that one time I had a non-speaking role as a bartender in his movie, Big Gay Love, starring Buffy The Vampire Slayer's Nicholas Brendon.

Then, I join A Special Presentation, David Crabb and Jonathan Bradley Welch's podcast that revisits the ghosts of TV past, to share my unabashed expertise and encyclopedic knowledge of what is quite possibly the best primetime soap of all-time, Knots Landing. *Sidenote: we recorded this episode back in 2018 at the famous Meltdown Comics on Sunset Boulevard (R.I.P.), which also housed The Nerdist Showroom.

Over on the DPlus Cast, I join Garytt Poirier to explore some forgotten Disney gems that are now available to stream on Disney+. In this episode, we look back at 1989's Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, a family-friendly adventure I saw in the theater back when I was [REDACTED]-years old. We also touch upon the lesser 1992 sequel, Honey I Blew Up The Kid, which features a pre-Felicity Keri Russell and may or may not have arrived at the beginning of my sexual awakening.

For my appearance on Scott Youngbauer and Peter Lozano's Movies That Made Us Gay, I reminisce about one of my favorite movies of all-time, Go, a pre-Y2K crime-dramedy starring Katie Holmes, Taye Diggs, Sarah Polley, Timothy Olyphant, Scott Wolfe, and a then-unknown Melissa McCarthy, who pops up with a two-minute cameo. (*FYI: This was my second guest appearance – check out my first during which I wax nostalgic on Adventures in Babysitting.)

You can hear me talk about Go (again!) when I celebrated its 20th anniversary back in 2019. I introduced this movie to baby millennials Jared Ruddell and Carolyn Wright on their podcast, We Watch Things, and gave a shoutout to its screenwriter, John August, for the film that sparked my fascination with rave culture and introduced me one of my favorite EDM artists, BT.

Last but not least, there's Happy Horror Time – and it's just what it sounds like. Fellow horror nerds Matt Emert and Tim Murdock review newly released films in the genre and interview veteran actors from slashers of the past like Kimberly Beck (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), and Tuesday Knight (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) while doing their best to not totally fanboy out. (*Disclaimer: I find myself LOLing a lot because they're two close friends, and I watch some of those movies with them.)

And if horror isn't your thing (and true crime IS), there's always Jacob Randall's compelling Crime of Your Life, which explores unsolved cases (Murders! Disappearances!) detail by eerie detail. 

@TheFirstEcho