Writers' Bloc Podcast

Brendan Hay is a self-proclaimed geek who's been lucky enough to write for The Simpsons, Robot Chicken (Emmy nominated!), and The Mighty B! Before that, he was a headline producer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and a contributing writer to America: The Book. Currently, he is the head writer on Star Wars Detours, a new animated comedy from Lucasfilm Animation. He also wrote an original graphic novel titled Rascal Raccoon's Raging Revenge for Oni Press which was recently optioned as a movie.

It's episode 4! We made it past the originally planned trilogy! And it's a good one, with Jo Miller, writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Jo and I get into every day operations at TDS as well as what it was like to work on Earth: The Book while we were doing the show at the same time. (Spoiler Alert: it was a lot of work.) Jo also talks about how her education in Medieval History actually comes in handy in her career as a comedy writer. Who knew!? Hope you enjoy this one, BlocHeads. Thanks for tuning in.

Jon Bines is a better comedy writer than he is a self-portrait photographer. He's also a brilliant, hilarious guy who writes for Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Writers' Bloc Podcast has him! Jon began his getting-paid-for-writing career at Comedy Central's "Turn Ben Stein On" which he happily left behind to work with Kimmel at "The Man Show" which, according to Jon, was not nearly as misogynistic as you may have thought it was. After a 2-year stint at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he left to help Jimmy create his then new talk show. The rest is history. And a lot of that history is included in this wildly informative and funny episode.

Rachel Axler is a former Daily Show writer whose longing to write more dialogue and story motivated her to become a staff writer at NBC’s Parks and Rec and eventually move on to write for Bored To Death, New Girl, and The Goodwin Games. She shares the similarities and differences of working at these shows and we work together to write the funniest tweet ever written about the Petraeus scandal, though that’s admittedly subjective. Rachel also has a graduate degree in playwriting… so take that!

Elliott Kalan is an Emmy-winning writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and co-host of the podcast The Flop House. He's also written for various magazines and Marvel Comics. But more importantly, he helped me kick things off with this "Very Special Bonus Test Episode". It doesn't include us writing a joke together but it does include us almost constantly going off topic in hilarious fashion. And, as usual, loads of advice and "learny" moments.

Co-creator and former head writer of The Daily Show and Air America Radio co-founder, Lizz Winstead, is one of the top political satirists in America. She also has dogs that like to bark and eat their own poop – a fact confirmed DURING this podcast. Lizz and I eat pistachios (loudly) and discuss what she was looking for when she was hiring The Daily Show’s original writing staff. Lizz’s experience and insight into the creative process is invaluable to aspiring and established comedy writers alike and I can’t think of a better way to kick off The Writers’ Bloc Podcast.