06Mar / 2012

Episode 10: Messed-up fantasies and magical robots with Chris Roberti

Several times per week, Chris Roberti swings open a hidden door in a superhero supply store and shepherds a bunch of wide-eyed kids into a secret writing lab.

I could stop right there and it would be enough. But, oh, there is so much more. Chris also writes lunchtime fan fiction, makes videos about his brother’s uncertain future, and performs in improv and sketch comedy shows at the Peoples Improv Theater. Plus, he is always calm. And he has great hair. WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED?!

In this special tenth episode of Ellipsis, hear stories about Chris’ frustrating genius brother Greg, Ella’s fear of children, mutual X-Files obsession, shame-laden food rituals, messed-up fantasies, and a heartwarming story about a magical robot.

Press play to listen:

Messed-up fantasies and magical robots [ 36:47 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Right-click to download: Episode 10: Messed-up fantasies and magical robots

Subscribe to Ellipsis: RSS / iTunes Store

Some of Chris’ YouTube creations:

Permalink 10 Comments

02Feb / 2012

Episode 9: Getting naked with burlesque performer Jezebel Express

I had seen Jezebel Express perform a burlesque striptease in which she portrayed a Macy’s gift wrapper, covering and uncovering parts of her body with presents. But I hadn’t met her. Then we both attended an art show at a sex shop. I was wearing a red corset. She came up and said we ought to be friends. It seemed like a good idea.

Since then we’ve attended and appeared in burlesque shows together, as well as having “writing dates” at a dive bar where Mike Myers drops in with his buddies. (Don’t worry, we act totally cool when he walks by to go to the bathroom.)

In this episode we tackle the politics of stripping, whether female-empowerment-through-nudity is a crock, and how to deal with an audience disliking you when you’re standing in front of them in your underwear.

Press play to listen:

Getting naked with burlesque performer Jezebel Express [ 34:28 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Right-click to download: Episode 9: Getting naked with Jezebel Express

Subscribe to Ellipsis: RSS / iTunes Store

Permalink 11 Comments

18Jan / 2012

Episode 8: Q and A, Advice on Furthering a Writing Career and How To Be Social

Okay. I’m going to be straight with you. I screwed up. I recorded this great episode with a funny, smart, Emmy-Award-winning guest, and when I listened to it I discovered that my mic was on the wrong setting and it sounded like the inside of a high-powered vacuum cleaner. I suck.

However. I am known throughout the universe for putting a positive spin on things. So I’ve turned this malfunction into a Very Special Episode in which I answer questions submitted to me on Twitter and Facebook. Free advice on writing and life! I mean, that’s not terrible, is it? Better than a poke in the eye with a mascara wand.

I’m going to go learn about microphones now. Please listen to this episode while I’m gone. Regular transmission will resume next week.

Press play to listen:

Q&A, advice on furthering a writing career and how to be social [ 38:26 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Right-click to download: Episode 8: Questions, answers and advice

Subscribe to Ellipsis: RSS / iTunes Store

Permalink 10 Comments

10Jan / 2012

Episode 7: How to stop feeling like a fraud, featuring Alejandro A. Arbona

Adventure is Alejandro Arbona‘s middle name. No, seriously, it is. You’ll hear the story behind that in this episode. This hyper-alliterative rapscallion is a writer and comic book editor who built an impressive body of work over several years at Marvel before being canned recently during a big round of layoffs. Ugh. Stupid economy.

Alejandro is now pursuing several of his own writing projects as well as being the Editor-at-Large for two comics: Casanova and Sacrifice. Among the many topics we discussed: turning disappointments into opportunities, feeling like a total fraud, how to get noticed as a writer or artist, and Robert Downey Jr.’s playboy insouciance.

We also talked, in great detail, about that one time that Tony Stark and Pepper Potts totally hooked up, except Tony didn’t remember it because he had wiped his mind as though it were a hard disk, but Pepper remembered, and man, it was sort of angsty and awkward for a while. But I cut that out.

Press play to listen:

How to stop feeling like a fraud, featuring Alejandro A. Arbona [ 32:39 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Right-click to download: Episode 7: How to stop feeling like a fraud

Subscribe to Ellipsis: RSS / iTunes Store

Permalink 5 Comments

03Jan / 2012

Episode 6: Practical advice for creatives with producer/director Eric Brown

Look at that charm-faced ruffian on the left. He makes me smile so hard that my eyes disappear beneath skin folds of happiness.

That’s Eric Brown. We met at Rocketboom, where he had the dubious privilege of editing my field reports. Now he and his partner in perfectionism, Andrew Kornhaber, have their own production company, Kornhaber Brown. Guess how they came up with the name?

Eric and Andrew work crazy-long hours planning, scripting, shooting and editing video. Their focus is on technology and the arts, and they’ve shot everything from musicians at Carnegie Hall to a primer on steampunk for the PBS show Off Book.

I wanted to have Eric on the podcast because he lives and works at the intersection of creativity and business. I find that creative types tend to be bad at business, perhaps because they’re under the romantic delusion that it’s noble to be destitute. As Eric succinctly says in this episode, that’s bullshit. Listen if you want advice on knowing your worth, sorting out the business side of your creative endeavors, and taking your passions and ideas more seriously.

Press play to listen:

Practical advice for creatives with producer/director Eric Brown [ 36:41 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Right-click to download: Episode 6: Practical advice for creatives

Subscribe to Ellipsis: RSS / iTunes Store

Kornhaber Brown’s steampunk episode of PBS Off Book:

Permalink 8 Comments

21Dec / 2011

Episode 5: Inspiration and joy with RecordSetter president Dan Rollman

This photograph tells the story of Dan Rollman. “Behold,” he seems to be saying, his right arm held aloft to indicate The Glorious Future, “great things are waiting for you. Run to them with an open mind and a fearless heart.” Meanwhile I’m just like, “What? Really? Are you sure that’s the right direction? I’m frightened. Let me cloud this moment with deflective humor and overanalysis.”

Dan has made some bold, risky moves in his life. Chief among them was bailing on a successful — and, let’s be frank, lucrative — advertising career to start a company based on his childhood love of world records. RecordSetter is the result. The website receives thousands of new record submissions every year, The RecordSetter Book of World Records is in stores around North America, and the “yellow jackets,” a.k.a. RecordSetter’s adjudicators, have made multiple appearances on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and traveled internationally to validate record attempts.

In this episode, Dan and I discuss the limits of creativity, a dog in a clown wig, the time he laughed ’til he cried on live TV, blow, orgies, stereotypes in advertising, accidental entrepreneurship, and why you should quit that job you hate and embark on a big scary adventure. Dan also explains the latest online fad: giraffing. Get into it!

Inspiration and joy with RecordSetter president Dan Rollman [ 35:43 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Right-click to download: Episode 5: Inspiration and joy

Subscribe to Ellipsis: RSS / iTunes Store

Permalink 3 Comments

14Dec / 2011

Episode 4: Death! Depression! Spandex! With Eclair Morton

This is the moment I met Eclair Morton. I was one year and 10 months old. I was not impressed.

Things have improved since then. Despite having polar-opposite temperaments and spending eight of our formative years living in different countries, we find common ground and enjoy each other’s company. I even convinced her to be on my podcast.

In this episode we delve into some hefty stuff, having been plunged into existential crises after watching Melancholia. If you want to hear some frank talk about depression, anxiety and ass-enhancing pants, click play.

Death! Depression! Spandex! With Eclair Morton [ 38:47 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Right-click to download: Episode 4: Death! Depression! Spandex!

Subscribe to Ellipsis: RSS / iTunes Store

Episode 3: Australia vs USA smackdown with fully Oz bloke Ty Pendlebury

This photo was taken during a farewell party on my last day at CNET Australia. A few seconds earlier the enormity of what I was about to do — quit my stable job, leave my friends and move to New York with no employment lined up — had dawned on me, and I had begun sobbing uncontrollably.

The nice man whose green shirt acted as a handkerchief for me that night is Ty Pendlebury. He sat next to me at CNET for several years, and we enjoyed many work-related spoils together. Like the time we went to Vegas to report on the Consumer Electronics Show. Yeah. We did lots of reporting.

Almost three years after I left Australia, Ty has joined me. He just transferred to CNET‘s New York office, and has been entertaining — and, in some cases, bewildering — his new colleagues with his Australian phrases and penchant for calling everyone, regardless of gender, Gary.

In this podcast, Ty and I talk about Americans not understanding us, us not understanding Americans, and the peculiar mix of pride and insecurity that makes up your average Australian.

Press play to listen now:

Australia vs USA smackdown with fully Oz bloke Ty Pendlebury [ 35:29 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Right-click to download: Episode 3: Australia vs USA Smackdown

Subscribe to Ellipsis: RSS / iTunes Store

Permalink 4 Comments

29Nov / 2011

Episode 2: Author and Alice for the iPad app designer Chris Stevens

I first encountered Chris Stevens when I saw him crashing to Earth in a giant egg during the intro of his CNET video series Space Bubble. He seemed highly intelligent, effortlessly witty, and just a little unhinged. I thought that if I ever met him in person I would either find him supremely annoying or totally enchanting. As I discovered in London about a year later, it was the latter. Phew.

I’ve long admired Chris’s writing skills, but he has many other talents — one of which was brought to the world’s attention when the gorgeous iPad app he designed, Alice for the iPad, went bananas. Oprah raved about it on her show. Broadsheet newspapers around the globe called it the future of publishing. It was all rather amazing. Even more amazing was that Chris remained his usual bohemian, “let’s-pack-a-knapsack-and-go-on-a-train-ride” self rather than affixing diamond grills to his teeth and filling a garage with Tesla Roadsters.

In this episode of Ellipsis, Chris talks about living his life as though it were a movie, the time he killed a man in Amsterdam, and how being a writer is like being a heroin addict.

Press play to listen now:

Writer and Alice for the iPad app designer Chris Stevens [ 34:31 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Right-click to download: Episode 2: Chris Stevens

Subscribe to Ellipsis: RSS / iTunes Store

Permalink 7 Comments

22Nov / 2011

Episode 1: Online video star Mememolly

Molly has been posting videos online since she was 16. After amassing legions of subscribers on YouTube she moved to New York at 19 to become the host of the daily news show Rocketboom. Two years later she took her talents to online video company My Damn Channel, where she now works behind the scenes.

In this podcast we talked about the internet’s effect on attention-seeking teens, the weirdness of having millions of people watch your videos, and how to respond when an anonymous commenter tells you to die while having an abortion. As well as a bunch of other things. Enjoy!

Press play to listen now:

Ellipsis 1: Mememolly [ 37:26 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Right-click to download: Episode 1: Mememolly

Subscribe to Ellipsis: RSS / iTunes Store

Permalink 28 Comments