#comical radio

It's time for Beginnings, the podcast where writer and performer Andy Beckerman talks to the comedians, writers, filmmakers and musicians he admires about their earliest creative experiences and the numerous ways in which a creative life can unfold.

On today's show I talk to LA-based comedian Danny Lobell. Danny is an internationally touring stand-up and storyteller, and for eight years he hosted the first comedy podcast called Comical Radio. Starting in 2004, Danny interviewed some of the top comic minds of our time including George Carlin, Paul Giamatti and Chris Rock. When the show ended in 2012, he started a new show called Modern Day Philosophers, where he learns about the Western canon of philosophy with his comedy guests.

Back in December, Danny came over to my Franklin Village sublet in LA to talk about resenting your siblings, mentally ill parents, familial rifts, being desensitized to violence, painting as a solitary act, an idealized vision of New York, the definition of "tenement", online trolls, seasonal affective disorder, The Schnoogy Hunters, John Wayne and the Magic Record Player, and converting to Orthodox Judaism. Plus, in the second half of the show, I talk to my friend Joel Straley of the Talk Party podcast about becoming an atheist.

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"Stop and smell the roses."

Background

Call me an optimist, but I love and respect life. I was listening to the podcast called Comical Radio, and the female co-host said "I didn't ask to be born." Though this isn't the first time that I've heard this phrase, it still makes me cringe when I hear it. First of all, it's just not possible, if you wanted to be born you would have to be born, etc. Also, if you think about it, you did ask to be born. Your father's sperm had to travel a very far distance to reach your mother's egg and fertilize it into the future you, but I digress.

Life is an incredible thing. Though it is filled with terrible terribles, there are some things that make life. First off, all living things, even cells,  have a need to live, otherwise they wouldn't be alive. Whether they "want" it or not (cells don't think, for example) they live on and adjust to their environment until their time comes (In healthy cells, I mean. Look up apoptosis for some cool stuff). Being a living thing, you have this same need. Thanks to our incredible brains we are able to do something that no other animal can, decide to not live. 

I think that this thought alone is something to marvel at. If you think about the amount of evolution that has occurred for the past two million years or so when the first hominid began walking the earth to the person reading this post, it is astonishing. We have come such a long way, gaining muscle, bones, height, and, most importantly, intelligence. Unfortunately, we are still hunter-gatherer animals. We are filled with hormones that control our cells and thinking process more than conscious thought ever could, and, therefore, we are not reasonable. 

I feel like I'm beating this thing to death, so I'll stop. All in all, just be happy that you could think of that in the first place.

Relevance