Tom Rhodes Radio Smart Camp

I have known and respected Drew Hastings for over 20 years. His jokes have always possessed an intelligent cynicism that hit me right in the heart of what I find funny. This conversation was recorded two years ago. While performing in Cincinnati I heard that Drew was now the mayor of Hillsboro, Ohio and when I finished my shows I stopped off to see him on my way to Chicago. He still performs stand up comedy, in fact his career took off once he left Los Angeles and moved back to his native Ohio. He is the kind of friend I cherish the most, the kind with differing opinions who can make you see things another way without it exploding into an argument. He is also what I would consider the most dangerous kind of politician, the kind who is sincere and genuinely cares about the people he represents. His story is fascinating and one that will probably one day be made into a movie. He is a prime example of the great and powerful things that can happen if you follow your heart and do what you believe in.  It is my

This episode was recorded in Brooklyn, New York. Having co-created the Daily Show and co-founded Air America it is a solid fact that Lizz Winstead has left a permanent mark on American entertainment and the American consciousness. Like most innovators and socially forward thinkers the roots of her tree began in stand up comedy.  I worked with Lizz several times in the early years of my career as her opening act. I was a very young and inexperienced comedian and I loved and respected her from our initial meeting. She was a strong female headliner in a profession that was mostly male dominated. She shared her comedy wisdom with me back then and I have always appreciated the intelligence she brought to any project she put her name on.  In the early years of Comedy Central I appeared on the first version of the Daily Show that Lizz was one of the producers of. I felt like a proud relative seeing Lizz kicking ass in the television world just as hard as she had as a headliner in the stand up comedy world. It had

This episode was recorded in New York City. I was in New York last week to film the new Dave Attell series for Comedy Central. At the moment it is called 'Adults Only'. It's an uncensored stand up show that will air sometime next year. I was there the entire week and got to watch every taping. I was on the last episode and thoroughly loved rocking it and can't wait for people to see it. It had been several years since I had been in New York and it was great to do sets around town honing my set for the filming. It was also great to see a few friends that I had not seen in many years. One of my favorite things in the world is to get together with comedians I love and admire and talk about comedy experiences and the nuts and bolts of the business. One of those people is Jim Gaffigan. I believe the last time Jim and I worked together was in London filming a TV show called 'The World Stands Up'. It had been at least ten years since we had seen each other but it was like we hadn't lost a minute between us when we

This episode was recorded several years ago in Atlanta, Georgia. It happens periodically that I will work with a young comedian that I love as a person and performer. When Jerry Rocha featured for me at the Atlanta Punchline I was pleased at how hard he rocked the room, warming the audience up rather than fouling up the bath water for the rest of the bathers. On and off stage Jerry is extremely likable. I like his style on stage and that he is not too cool to embrace his silliness. I think that after a few more years of seasoning he'll be a beast on the circuit and on viewing screens that must be dealt with. I love the material he does now and I look forward to seeing what mind bending humorous thoughts he comes up with in the future. He is an undiscovered comedy gem and that is why I am presenting him here with my full endorsement of his skills. 

This episode was recorded in Seattle, Washington. I have known Cathy Sorbo for over 20 years. She is not only a brilliant stand up comedian but she also keeps inventing these supremely hilarious songs. She decided to stay based in Seattle to be with her family and I think she is better off for it. Her real life experiences are the gems of her material that makes me laugh the hardest but it is her inventiveness in her style and in her songs that make her a comedy legend. She has been a true friend to me and it would be impossible for me to come to Seattle and not see her. Cathy is one of those rare creatures who personally busts me up with laughter. Her innate silliness perfectly compliments her astute intelligence. She is one of my favorite human beings walking the earth today, she is the one and only Cathy Sorbo.

Recorded in Chicago at Zanies on a Saturday night last September between breaks in 3 shows. Drew Michael was my feature act for the week and I loved what he was doing on stage. He's young, good looking, mildly angst ridden and I believe he will be a dangerously good comedian one day. He is from Chicago but about to move to New York. It was such a busy week for both of us the only time we had to record was during our breaks on a 3 show Saturday. The result is some good examination of the shows and the crowds. Smart comedy has always come out of Chicago and Drew is a prime example of this. I believe in his future so much I wanted to introduce him to you on my show now. Enjoy getting to know Drew Michael!

This episode was recorded in Beijing, China. I first met Des Bishop many years ago in London when we both performed on a show together. He has had a very unique life story and an amazing career trajectory.  Des is originally from New York but has deep family roots in Ireland. He started his stand up comedy career in Dublin and has gone on to have a brilliant television career in Ireland. For the past year he has been living in Beijing because he wants to learn Mandarin Chinese and perform stand up comedy in Chinese. On the night I arrived after I dropped my luggage at the hotel I took a taxi to the local Chinese comedian open mic night that Des puts on. I couldn't believe it when I saw it but here was my friend standing there performing to a room full of Chinese people getting laughs in Chinese! I was absolutely blown away by this feat.  In this episode we talk about Des' television highlights in Ireland and how he came to fall in love with China to make a life here. He also explains everything you need to kn

Sometimes with my podcast I like to imagine it as if I were teaching a university course on stand up comedy. That is why it was an absolute joy for me to sit down with Bill Burr and pick his brain about comedy and his thoughts on the importance of turning over a new hour show every year or two. Personally, for me Bill is one of the most exciting comedians working today. Onstage he is a tempest. He is like watching a major storm develop and then crash down with a fury each new idea he presents. Presently, he is one of the hottest comedians in the world. Touring theaters, giving birth to new hour specials, he even had a recurring role on the critically acclaimed series 'Breaking Bad'. He is a true comedy bad ass. His 'Monday morning podcast' is one of the most downloaded podcasts in the world right now and I'm very proud that my podcast is a part of the All Things Comedy network that Bill started with Al Madrigal. It is my pleasure to present to you now, the rock solid thrower of comedy thunderbolts that is Bi

The more I get to know Ari Shaffir the more I like him. He is one of the most pleasant human beings walking this earth. Every time I see him he puts a smile on my face. I have never seen him with a dark cloud of emotions hanging over him.  Several years ago he started doing story telling shows and now that concept of his is being produced by Comedy Central digital in a series called 'This can't be happening'.  A few weeks ago I caught up with Ari in San Francisco while he was co-headlining at Cobb's with Joey CoCo Diaz. I watched Ari's fans shower him with gifts of joints and marijuana nuggets after his show and the next afternoon we sat down to have this conversation.  We talk about many great things but most importantly we both agree that "Comedy is a dark room where adults go to hear the truth about uncomfortable subjects." 

I was a fan of Carl LaBove before I ever even met him. When I was 17 I went to see Sam Kinison in Orlando and Carl LaBove was the opening act. Carl blew me away that night with his ferocious comedy cyclone, Kinison was wasted and I left the Bob Carr auditorium thinking Carl LaBove was a name to remember. Years later I met Carl when we did the Toronto comedy festival together. On the gala television taping for that festival Carl accidentally ended up being on mushrooms for that performance. I never get tired of hearing Carl tell the story of that night. Through the years I have become good friends with Carl and I see him as a master Samurai warrior of comedy. He is the perfect example to shatter the notion that comedy is a young man's game. Carl continues to be one of my favorite live performing comedians and night after night he harnesses the same enthusiastic high energy story telling power that first blew me away when I saw him at 17. I'm privileged to have seen him perform countless times through the ye

I first saw Rick Shapiro perform when I lived in New York City 1998 - 1999. He wasn't playing in comedy clubs then he had a regular Wednesday night stint at a bar in Lower Manhattan. A musician friend of mine took me to see him and the musician friend told me "This guy does more than comedy. He does raw naked truth". I was ready to not like it but what happened over the next two hours as I sat watching him in this dark bar was uniquely powerful. It took him about 20 minutes to warm up but once he did there were slabs of brilliance. He spoke so freely and candidly about being a heroin addict and male prostitute I was transfixed. The sheer raw power of his honestly as he portrayed different stories of his personal history made me a fan of his work and the comedy thunderbolts he was throwing down.  I didn't meet Rick until about 7 or 8 years ago at a party of comedians in Los Angeles. I must have ignored everyone for most of the night because my main memory of that party is of talking with Rick all night about

I believe this episode is among the very best that I have yet been a part of because of the time, love and preparation that went into making it. Sananda Maitreya was once known by a former name that I will not speak because I get the feeling that person no longer exists and that is the way Mr. Maitreya wants it. I love and respect this man so much it is effortless for me to comply with his wishes. Earlier this year I discovered his brand new album entitled 'Return to Zooathalon' and it has been in my heavy rotation in the music that I have been using to pump me up and fuel me up to keep motoring down the highway. For me as a music lover there is no better feeling than when you fall in love with an artist's music to discover that they have an entire body of work that you were unaware of. That is what happened with me after I feel in love with 'Return to Zooathalon', I discovered the period of recordings Mr. Maitreya calls Post Millennium  Rock. There are so many smash hits in these recordings! As I got furth

This episode is a heartbreaker. I was shocked and saddened to learn that Dara Faizi died on September 30, 2013 at the tender young age of 25. I became friends with Dara when he was first starting out as a comedian in Holland. He was a young master of comedy even when he just started. He had confidence as a story teller and a command of the stage you don't normally see in a comedian who is just starting out. He told fierce tales about being from Afghanistan and how his father was killed by the Taliban. He was an only child brought to Holland by his Mother when he was only 9 years old. On long van rides to do theater shows all over Holland he would pick my brain with questions about being a comedian and performing. There are times as a comedian when you see a young performer and you know that they are destined for great things. That is how I felt about Dara, I knew he was going to be a star from the moment I met him. This conversation was recorded on November 1, 2010 in Amsterdam. For years before I started d

I've known Jim Breuer since we were both starting out in Florida back at Ron Bennington's Comedy Scene in Clearwater. He has always been bringing head crunching thunder as a comedian since I first saw him. He went on to massive success with Saturday Night Live and co-staring with Dave Chappelle in the quintessential stoner movie of all time 'Half Baked'. We recorded this conversation in Chicago while we were both performing there. I was looking forward to seeing him and telling him how much I loved his act the last few times I had seen him because he bravely spoke about taking care of Dad and helping him through his illness. It was the most heartbreaking subject matter turned into hilarious comedy. It turned out Jim has just released a film about his father's illness called 'More than me' which is now available on Netflix. In this conversation he opens up about his Dad, the highs and frustrations of being a main player on SNL, the greatest show business advice he ever received from Bill Cosby, hilarious opini

For the past 3 years in a row my wife and I have rented an apartment in Rome. This year we did something different, we acted like we lived there. Instead of exhausting days visiting the monuments we look it easy, exploring delicious restaurants, relaxing in cozy wine bars... the one treat we planned was a four hour scooter tour with scooteroma.com  My friend Bert Kreischer turned me on to them.It is one of the coolest things I have ever done in Rome. It's run by Annie Ojile and Giovanni Nerone. Annie is from Minnesota and she is married to Giovanni who is from Rome. They both know so many interesting facts about Roman history, Italian culture, language and music. They we so fun and interesting my wife and I became instant friends with them. A few nights after our tour we got together for dinner then went back to our apartment to drink wine and talk about all things Italy. This episode is packed with information and you will love that Rome in all it's glory coming into your ear holes. Rome has become one of

When I started out on the road I worked the southern circuits of the United States. I have performed in every town that ends in ville or boro.   I did a horrendous gig in Mobile, Alabama many years ago and the best thing about it was I made a life long friendship with Faye Woodruff.   Faye is a southern comedy legend known as the Grand Mother From Hell. She started doing the road once her husband Joe had retired and they would travel together. It was inspiring to see an older couple who were still head over heels in love with each other. Sadly, Joe passed away and as she gets older Faye does the road less and less. She has been an important person in my life. My Grand Mother died when I was very young and I have always considered Faye to be a sort of Grand Mother figure to me. She loves dirty jokes and that is why she is called the Grand Mother from Hell because she looks like a sweet little old lady when she takes the stage but then her act that follows is filthy and hilarious. She once robbed a comedy club

Tom Rhodes Radio is in Malaysia! Kuah Jenhan is the darling of the Malaysian comedy scene. His jokes are clean and clever and he is admired for turning over fresh new material frequently. I worked with him on my first visit to Kuala Lumpur and got to sit down and have this chat with him when I recently returned. He writes a comedy monthly comedy column for Esquire magazine of Malaysia and recently had an ice cream named after him. Enjoy the world wide perspective of one of Asia fastest rising comedy stars!

Hasan Minhaj is politically aware and socially conscious in his comedy and in his life. He doesn't take any shit when it comes to offensive stereotypes, just ask Ashton Kutcher who he smacked down for appearing in brown face. Hasan has appeared on MTV's Disaster Date and can be seen in the upcoming Stand Up Planet. He puts his heart and soul into his comedy and his youtube videos brandishing the powerful sword of truth. This episode was recorded at the Safari Inn in Burbank, California where scenes from the movie True Romance were filmed. Enjoy this future bright star of world wide comedy!

I worked with Stephan Grant earlier this year in Kuala Lumpur.  He has a lightning quick wit and powers out jokes on a wide range of topics. He writes for many television shows and comedy TV stars in the UK. If you see him work it is no surprise he is in such hot demand as a writer. I enjoyed watching him work night after night and he shoots out punchlines like an AK 47 in rapid powerful procession. He lives in Brighton, the artist hipster capitol of England and if you don't know him already you will be glad for the introduction. He made comedy history when he was sued by his ex-wife for making jokes about her. In that regard he has done something for the entire industry by defending the right to joke about whatever you like. The man has my respect and I thank him for the truck loads of laughter he delivers. Enjoy one of England's finest comedians!

This episode was recorded in Madison, Wisconsin. Many times as a comedian I will work with a younger comedian who I believe has true talent and a bright future. I had met Carlos Valencia through Doug Stanhope several years ago but didn't get to see him work until he opened for me last year at Comedy On State in Madison. He has a dark twisted sense of humor and he is following the path of a comedian with a pure heart. He is a golden human being and a comedian you should know about so that it is no surprise when he rises up in the near future. Please enjoy my friend, Carlos Valencia.