This Alley Oop podcast episode takes place Live From Vietnam! (Or I guess recorded) Comedian Paul Morrissey is in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)  for the Magner's Comedy Festival and he talks with fellow comedians Matthew Giffen (United Kingdom) & Martin Mor (Ireland) about the shows in Singapore & the days spent in Vietnam so far. This conversation takes place in the Hotel lobby where there is some tension as the guys discuss their stay.

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Alley Oop in Vietnam!

A special episode of the Alley Oop Podcast with the great Artie Lange. This is an except from an episode  the Artie Lange Uncensored podcast, to subscribe go to www.artiequitter.com  You know Artie Lange from his days at Mad TV and movies like Beer League and Dirty Work. He became beloved as the sidekick on the Howard Stern show and proved he is one of the funniest guys on the planet.  Artie and Paul talk comedy, yankees, who may or may not be having sex with Lebron's Mom, a Bob Uecker story that will make you laugh til you cry, and what a Liam Neeson and Artie Lange movie would sound like. 

Artie Lange: The Bag's On You!

      Paul talks with childhood hoops buddy, Nate O'Neil on this episode of the Alley Oop Podcast.  After a successful college career at Colgate University, Nate went on to play professional basketball for the Washington Generals (I.E. the team that loses to the Harlem Globetrotters) They talk about how he ended up there, and also about how close Paul was to becoming a Washington General at one point.   Nate talks about traveling the world, tells some great stories about playing against legendary players like Daryl Dawkins in arenas like Madison Square Garden.   Don't let this losing record fool you, Nate is still Colgate's all-time leading 3 point shooter (%) and is in the top five all time in the Patriot League athletic conference. He still dunked on his birthday this year.  Nate and Paul also reminisce growing up playing hoops in the Binghamton area and the notable players and playground games. 

Nate O'Neil: Playing For the Washington Generals

An actual full-on sports episode, we get some great basketball insight with LA Clippers beat reporter, Dan Woike, of the Orange Country Register. Dan and Paul become friends on the set of a the Nike Chris Paul Commercials last summer where they were both actors playing reporters. The two love talking hoops and Dan talks about day-to-day life and travel as an NBA beat reporter. He also gives some great insight about the Donald Sterling situation and just how much it affected the team and their playoff run last season.  How will the Clippers do this year? Listen and find out. 

Dan Woike: Covering the LA Clippers

It's about 3am in New York City a few nights before Paul makes his debut on "The Late Show with David Letterman." After running a few sets, Paul meets up with Ari Shaffir at The Stand Comedy Club, and they walk around the East Village eating pizza and cookies.   Now back at Ari's apartment the two discuss Ari's recent tour of China, his TV show on Comedy Central and 1 hour TV special.  Paul also talks about the process of getting bumped and his return trip to NYC to be on the David Letterman Show. Things are going great for them both but talking about  that wouldn't be a fun podcast.  Ari complains about Verizon, and they both complain about how hard it was to get to where they are in comedy.  In the words of Joe Walsh,"I can't complain but sometimes I still do." No sports talk this episode, sorry.

Ari Shaffir: Chinese Delight

The Alley Oop podcast returns with a great episode with comedian, author, former Fox Studio Executive and 12 Moth Storyslam winner Carlos Kotkin.  Comedian Paul Morrissey and Carlos are old friends from standup comedy and have performed with each other many times over the years and produced a show together called "Funny Writers Reading Stories."      Paul discusses his recent work on a sitcom pilot and also announces that he'll be appearing on the David Letterman show on July 10th.  This inteview is from several months back, and Carlos mentions shyly that he's working on an animated feature script which we now can disclose that it is the blockbuster sequel "Rio 2."  Paul & Carlos also discuss how to get a book deal and develop it into a TV show.  Carlos also discusses how he develped his penpal relationship David Sedaris. Carlos wrote a hilarious book about dating called "Please Got Let It Be Herpes," which you can purchase on amazon.com or go to an actually store that sells books. For more information, go to his website www.carloskotkin.com    

Carlos Kotkin: Author & Accidental Studio Executive

After an introduction by Paul from the Montreux Comedy Festival in Switzerland, special guest Stephen Tobolowsky talks about his career in film, TV and his recent writing endeavors including his book "The Dangerous Animals Club."

Stephen Tobolowsky: It's A Wonderful Life

Dwayne Perkins is a New York born and now Los Angeles based comedian. He makes frequent appearances on Conan, and travels the world spreading his comic views.  Paul and Dwayne perform together often and cross paths outside of comedy at concerts, film festivals and sporting events. Dwayne talks about his competitive nature and philosophy of life with Paul. The two also reminisce about Big East Basketball and discuss the current state of the NBA and its superstars.   Paul & Dwayne will both be perfroming at the Promenade Playhouse on Friday, October 18th on the "Funny Writers Reading Their Stories" show. Dwayne will be reading a selection from his book, "Hot Chocolate For The Mind."

Dwayne Perkins: Life, Comedy & Basketball

Paul's guest this week is Emmy-Award winning writer, comedian, Executive Producer and Showrunner Mike Royce.   A fellow upstate, New York native, Royce grew up near Syracuse and attended Ithaca College before heading to NYC to pursue comedy as a career.   Mike gives a lot of background on the New York City comedy scene post-boom when he was the house MC at the Comedy Cellar performing with a lot of his comedian buddies like Dave Attell, Todd Barry, Louis CK.  Mike then went on to a job as an audience warmup comedian on Spin City before teaming up with Ray Romano on Saturday Night Live and coming up with one of the great catchphrases of all-time "Sweet Sassy Molassy" during the hilarious SNL Sportscenter Spoof.  Mike then moved to Los Angeles when he was offered a writing job on Everybody Loves Raymond, and went on to win two Emmy Awards, before being hired as the showrunner for Louis CK's HBO Sitcom "Lucky Louie." From there he went on to be the showrunner on "Men Of A Certain Age" starring Ray Romano, 1600 Penn, and has a new show called "Enlisted" that begins in November on Fox.    The two talk about the transition from standup to TV writing and producing as well as getting into some sports talk, as Mike is a big hockey fan- NY Rangers and now LA Kings. 

Mike Royce: Sweet Sassy Molassy!

Our guest this week is Josh Thompson, who is the mastermind behind the robot sidekick Geoff Peterson on "The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson" on CBS.  He was also the voice of Arnold Schwartzeneggar on the Howard Stern Show when MSNBC and George Takei were both tricked into thinking he was really the former Governor of California. Paul Morrissey and Josh first met when they were performing together at a storytelling show at The Improv in Hollywood.  Paul asks Josh about his upbringing in Cleveland and the influence of the Muppet Show on his career.  He also talks about turning a one day gig as the robot into a full time job on the Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson.  He also talks about his cool experiences on the show, and what it's like getting complimented by some of his idols like Paul Williams, Carol Burnett, Don Rickles, Richard Lewis and Dick Van Dyke. Josh describes his complicated day to day setup performing as the robot and gives some insight on his comedic style and what he's looking to do in the future with his career. Check out his Pokin Around Podcast on www.jrtvoices.com Josh will also be starring in the upcoming romantic comedy movie "Nowhere Girl." 

Josh Thompson: Robot Sidekick to Craig Ferguson

Paul Morrissey catches up with one of his hometown buddies, comedian Sam Tripoli, who grew up in Cortland,NY, not far from Owego where Paul is from.   Sam is the host of the popular "Naughty Show" at the Comedy Store, and also host a podcast with the same name, as well as co-hosting the popular Punchdrunk Podcast along with Ari Shaffir and Jason Thibault.  Sam talks about growing up in Cortland, his quest to be class clown and his daring move to Las Vegas after high school to blindly pursue a career in comedy.   Tripoli gained notoriety as one of the best bar comedians, knows for his wild antics and willingness to do anything to entertain people in a wild atmosphere.  He then moved to Los Angeles and was passed by Mitzi Shore at the Comedy Store to develop his act. After being chosen to perform at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, Sam focused on his special brand of "Naughty Show" comedy and eventually hosted his own TV show on Spike as well as making a series of standup TV appearances. He frequently opens for Joe Rogan and is a big fan of UFC.   Paul and Sam share a love of NBA basketball and hatred of the Lakers, with Sam being an LA Clippers. The two talk about happiness, their showbusiness dreams and what the future holds for them in standup comedy. 

Comedian Sam Tripoli: The Naughty Show

Christopher "Kid" Reid is Paul Morrissey's guest on this episode of the Alley Oop Podcast.  Kid is part of the platinum selling rap duo "Kid N Play" who also starred in the House Party movies (1,2 and 3). He also tours as a standup comedian which is where the two first met while performing a standup show in the Los Angeles area a few years back. We also find out that Kid composed the Real Time with Bill Mahar on HBO.  The two talk sports right away- why was Doug Flutie never appreciated? What's it like to be a NY Knicks fan? Why is sports betting an insane hobby? They also talk about which point guards influenced Paul's game- from Tim Hardaway, Tiny Archibald to Mark Price. Kid also tells some great pickup basketball stories playing with Andrew Toney and Moses Malone. Kid also talks about how crazy it is for Phil Jackson to criticize Kobe Bryant, and how insane Kobe and his family must be to want to sue each other.  Kid talks about first getting famous and how important it was to buy his father a car. They talk about Paul's days as a reporter covering the Sacramento Kings, "White Chocolate" Jason Williams, and Kid tells a great story about what it's like to go drinking with Charles Oakley and Derrick Coleman.  They talk about old school Big East hoops- St Johns, Mark Jackson and his brother  Troy (AKA Escalade) who Paul went to summer basketball camp with. Paul asks Kid what it was like to chase his dream and achieve rap super stardom.  Kid talks about touring with NWA and the old school hip-hop scene as well as what the music scene is like now and the thrill of performing as Kid N Play at NBA games. 

Chris "Kid" Reid from Kid N Play

SPECIAL CLIP! Arnold Schwarzeneggar talks about the Alley Oop Podcast

Marsh McCall was one of the original writer's of Late Night with Conan O'Brien and became head writer of the show. He's also a showrunner, Executive Producer and writer of funny things on the New Yorker online. Marsh is Beatles expert, and also plays basketball with Paul every once in awhile.  The two talk about their love of Monty Python, the TV show Fawlty Towers among other influences.   Marsh was a newspaper writer in San Francisco Bay area before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in TV writing. He landed his first job as one of the original Conan O'Brien writers, along with Louis CK, Robert Smigel, Bob Odenkirk and shared an office with Andy Richter.  After the first year, Marsh became head writer and then moved back to Los Angeles to Executive Produce "Just Shoot Me" and a host of other TV shows. It was just announced that Marsh will be writing a TV show with Jamie Foxx called "Dad, Stop Embarrassing Me" for TBS.

Marsh McCall:Original Conan O'Brien Writer

Emmy-Award winning TV writer, director, producer, screenwriter and major league play-by-play announcer Ken Levine is my guest.  Ken has packed in a few lifetimes of dream-chasing and it's all paid off; from writing on TV shows like MASH, Cheers, Frazier to announcing baseball games for the Seattle Mariners, Baltimore Orioles and San Diego Padres.  Paul talks to Ken about his recent blog post on www.kenlevine.blogspot.com  in which he challenged actor/producer Zach Braff's use of kickstarter to raise funds for his movie.  Ken believes things like kickstarter should be for the up-and-comers, not merely as a pubicity machine for millionaires to raise more millons. The two discuss that and also Ken's early success with his TV writing partner David Isaac's on shows like MASH and Cheers. Paul gushes about one of his favorite movies, Volunteers- starring Tom Hanks, John Candy and Gedde Watanabe---- which Ken Levine wrote the screenplay. Ken talks about chasing his dream from doing by play by play by himself into a tape recorder at Dodger stadium, to the Syracuse Chiefs, to the major leagues with the Baltimore Orioles.  Ken also discusses the current state of television, comedies of the past, and the future of sitcoms. Are 3 camera sitcoms going to be extinct? Ken says not so fast.  

Ken Levine: Talks Zach Braff, Kickstarter, MLB Announcing and TV

Paul C. Morrissey is a favorite comedian of Late Night TV shows and comedy clubs around the world. He's also a former TV Sports Anchor, college basketball player and coach. Paul also earned a Master's Degree in English from NYU and is a music and film fanatic, so this podcast combines a wide range of topics with sports discussions. The former point guard keeps the show moving and sets up his eclectic guests --writers, actors, directors, comedians, musicians and of course people from the sports world.

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