EPISODE 106: CORY CAVIN

This week, Sara and Nikki investigate the dangerously awesome allure of Vicodin and share tales of stepping back from the painkilling brink. Though he’s made a couple cameos in the past, this episode marks Cory Cavin’s (@corycavin, the Talking Pee-approved webseries Model Wife) first official appearance on YHTBT. He and Sara boil down the origins of their long friendship and the trio of now-coworkers commune on nicknames, head-fashion, and Christian in-jokes. When Sara bounces early, the two stragglers recall their most awkward encounters and generally make up for the Nikkilessness of Cory’s first kinda episode. Carpet drapem, hobots.

You Had To Be There is sponsored by Squarespace, the most accessible and best-looking website creation platform on the ‘net. Squarespace offers ultimate freedom and ease of use when making whatever you can dream up: blogs, galleries, and now fully functioning online stores. Go to Squarespace.com for a free trial, and use the new code “bethere” to get 10% off any purchase on the site.

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EPISODE 105: JIM & JEANIE GAFFIGAN

This week, Sara and Nikki relive their surreal evening spent amongst random celebrities and teenage screams.  Comedy power couple Jim and Jeannie Gaffigan (Comedy Central, Twitter & Twitter) make their triumphant return to the podcast and speculate about the pitfalls of Taylor-level fame.  Jim’s new book, Dad is Fat, drops next week, but you should preorder a copy now just in case.  Written with Jeannie and inspired by their five kids, the book is an astonishingly hilarious and oppressively addicting collection of essays on fatherhood.  For the rest of the hour, the gang discusses collaborating with a writing partner, treating stand-up as therapy, and a rare definition of the word “galley”.

Hey, remember a while back when Nikki recorded a special up in Boston?  Well that set premieres this Friday May 3rd at 12 midnight/11c, kicking off Comedy Central’s new season of The Half Hour.  Read this now, watch that then.

You Had To Be There is sponsored by Squarespace, the most accessible and best-looking website creation platform on the ‘net. Squarespace offers ultimate freedom and ease of use when making whatever you can dream up: blogs, galleries, and now fully functioning online stores. Go to Squarespace.com/BeThere for a free trial, and use the new code “bethere” to get 10% off any purchase on the site.

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EPISODE 104: AL MADRIGAL

This week, Sara and Nikki reannounce the renewal of their really great TV show Nikki & Sara LIVE (thanks for watching!) before quickly introducing their guest, comedian Al Madrigal (The Daily Show, @almadrigal).  Al’s new standup special Why is the Rabbit Crying? premieres on Comedy Central this Friday April 26, making this episode the perfect opportunity to reflect upon the grueling road sets and iffy TV spots that have gotten him this far.  It’s “gratitude and caution”, Sara points out, that keep a comic sane as he strives through those early days, dreaming of a time when he’ll have earned the respect and admiration of both his peers and his cussing kid cousins.

You Had To Be There is sponsored by Squarespace, the most accessible and best-looking website creation platform on the ‘net.  Squarespace offers ultimate freedom and ease of use when making whatever you can dream up: blogs, galleries, and now fully functioning online stores.  Go to Squarespace.com/BeThere for a free trial, and use the new code “mancandy” to get 10% off any purchase on the site.

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EPISODE 103: SUE COSTELLO

This week, Sara and Nikki are personally invited to a Taylor Swift gig out in Jersey and neither snow nor rain nor violent food poisoning will stay these girls from meeting Swift herself.  Comic and birthday girl Sue Costello (@suecostello, The Fighter, TV everything) takes the ladies through her one-woman show I Wasn’t Trying To Be Funny for which she’s currently raising money to bring to a broader audience through Kickstarter (help her out!).  The show covers Sue’s entire comedic career thus far, from the highs of being discovered at an elderly bringer show to the improbably unlucky lows of jealous mentors and hindering home runs, and how through it all she’s maintained her trademark candor and zeal.

In closing, Nikki implores you to watch Nikki & Sara LIVE on MTV Tuesday at 11pm/10c.  Trust her, she’s an expert in these things.

You Had To Be There is sponsored by Squarespace, the most accessible and best-looking website creation platform on the ‘net.  Squarespace offers ultimate freedom and ease of use when making whatever you can dream up: blogs, galleries, and now fully functioning online stores.  Go to Squarespace.com/BeThere for a free trial, and use the new code “mancandy” to get 10% off any purchase on the site.

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EPISODE 102: CHRIS FAIRBANKS

This week, Sara and Nikki quash a bout of podcaster’s block by brainstorming new ways for Nikki to find dates.  Their guest Chris Fairbanks (@chrisfairbanks, Comedy Central, truTV’s World’s Dumbest), a comic who graced the stage at YHTBT’s first live taping, takes this theme and runs with it first through the dark depths of sexual insanity and later around the whimsies of deceptive dating and pubic quilts.  To close, the three talk pee about Chris’s CD, friend-of-the-‘cast Myq Kaplan’s existence, and Buzzfeeder @LouisPeitzman’s timely tweets.

Studies show the absolute best way to spend your Tuesday nights from 11pm/10c on is watching Nikki & Sara LIVE on MTV, so be sure to be there as well.

You Had To Be There is sponsored by Squarespace, the most accessible and best-looking website creation platform on the ‘net.  Squarespace offers ultimate freedom and ease of use when making whatever you can dream up: blogs, galleries, and now fully functioning online stores.  Go to Squarespace.com/BeThere for a free trial, and use the new code “pee” to get 10% off any purchase on the site.

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EPISODE 101: MOSHE KASHER

This week, Sara and Nikki declassify the events surrounding last week’s torrent of celebrity encounters, codenamed Zero Dark Flirty.  Comic Moshe Kasher (@moshekasher, The Champs podcast) barely makes it past MTV’s team of New World Order security guards in time to plug his shows at Carolines with Natasha Leggero this very weekend and reminisce about his last barfight.  Moshe, whose dark and hilarious memoir Kasher in the Rye was published last year, has been cutting his way through the jungle of the LA TV biz and he comes armed with tales of treacherous table-reads and wise words for tackling rampant self-doubt.  The gang talks a little pee about Nikki’s documented love for Fitzdog Radio, Sara’s documented love for Nikki, and Moshe’s dreams coming true vis-à-vis those Carolines shows (which, by the way, you should go to).

Hark: Pope Francis has decreed that you, dear sinner, should check out Nikki & Sara LIVE every Tuesday at 11pm/10c on MTV.  It will make you laugh and save your soul.

You Had To Be There is sponsored by Squarespace, the most accessible and best-looking website creation platform on the ‘net.  Squarespace offers ultimate freedom and ease of use when making whatever you can dream up: blogs, galleries, and now fully functioning online stores.  Go to Squarespace.com/BeThere for a free trial, and use the new code “pee” to get 10% off any purchase on the site.

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EPISODE 100: MIKE BIRBIGLIA

This week, Sara and Nikki just barely evade the censors and then react to Nikki’s illicit half hour special gifts.  To celebrate their first triple-digit episode, the ladies entertain one of their biggest guests yet: Mike Birbiglia (@birbigs).  In Sara’s humble office, the trio kick around some themes Mike covered in his recent movie Sleepwalk with Me, like crazy dreams and on-stage stress.  Later, they get to some he left out too, like the isolation of marriage and the optimism of cell division.  Plus Kanye.  They really cover it all.  Talking Pee singles out The Ben Show, that new Baumbach movie, a positive Internet interaction, and Maria Bamford’s comedian-approved comedy.  Here’s to the next hundred.

And be sure to watch Nikki & Sara LIVE Tuesdays at 11pm/10c on MTV because you deserve it.

You Had To Be There is sponsored by Squarespace, the most accessible and best-looking website creation platform on the ‘net.  Squarespace offers ultimate freedom and ease of use when making whatever you can dream up: blogs, galleries, and now fully functioning online stores.  Go to Squarespace.com/BeThere for a free trial, and use the new code “pee” to get 10% off any purchase on the site.

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EPISODE 99: MICHAEL CHE

This week, Sara and Nikki conduct a no-nonsense all-business intro before announcing their pick for the YHTBT-designed listener-proposed website to be created on Squarespace: an entire site exclusively devoted to Talking Pee.  The ladies welcome rising comic Michael Che (Best Week Ever, Letterman, soon SNL) to discuss the art of calling out an audience’s oversensitivity regarding such topics as race or bulldogs.  The trio touch upon all the complications and potential depression of watching porn and end up highlighting a host of real-world gestures, scents, and compliments that do a better job of turning them on anyway.  To close, everyone Talks Pee about Tim Minchin and his about-to-open Matilda, Mario Badescu and his magical skin creams, and Thai food as a whole.

Reminders!  If you’d like to attend the taping of Nikki’s half-hour special this Friday March 1st in Boston fo’ free, head over to theblacklistnyc.com/ccboston for tickets.  And don’t forget to do yourself a favor and tune in to Nikki & Sara LIVE this Tuesday at 11pm/10c on MTV.

You Had To Be There is sponsored by Squarespace, the most accessible and best-looking website creation platform on the ‘net.  Squarespace offers ultimate freedom and ease of use when making whatever you can dream up: blogs, galleries, and now fully functioning online stores.  Go to Squarespace.com/BeThere for a free trial, and use the code “hobot” to get 10% off any purchase on the site.

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EPISODE 98: ANDREW W.K.

This week, Sara and Nikki react live on-mic to their first taste of the Suit & Tie video (or at least to the best bits, until all that wacky jumping business).  After considering to which drug Vine is most similar, the ladies share some dark thoughts and weird feelings that follow them through life and the causes and goals that help them cope.  Looking like a badass angel from a half-remembered dream (probably involving cereal), rocker, proprietor, and professional partier Andrew W.K. suddenly appears to give one crazy-entertaining interview.  Besides discussing the many merits of the Internet and his first-rate Twitter, Andrew riffs on awesome childhood parties of yore, mind-blowing vision boards, and the only Party Tip he ever regrets endorsing.

If you’re going to be anywhere near Boston on March 1st and you’re a listener of this ol’ podcast, then come see Nikki tape her Comedy Central half hour special!  It’ll be incredibly fun and extremely free.  Click here to get the deets and reserve yr seats.  (And if you’re going to be anywhere near a TV this Tuesday at 11pm/10c, then fire up MTV and watch Nikki & Sara LIVE whydontcha.

You Had To Be There is now sponsored by Squarespace, the most accessible and best-looking website creation platform on the ‘net.  Squarespace offers ultimate freedom and ease of use when making whatever you can dream up: blogs, galleries, extensive historical analyses on ants, and now fully functioning online stores.  Go to Squarespace.com/BeThere for a free trial, and use the code “hobot” to get 10% when you buy any account on the site.

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EPISODE 97: YANNIS PAPPAS

This week, Nikki and Sara marvel at how, two weeks in, they’ve already gotten used to the process of making their television show.  Sara recently saw Django Unchained in a now-rare moment of free time and when she says she liked it, Brooklyn-born comic and certified “grown man” (see ep. 96) Yannis Pappas (Modern Comedian, Twitter) offers his wholehearted agreement.  After flinging fury at Brooklyn’s bogus new neighborhoods, Philly’s sports obsessions, and Beantown’s general demeanor, Yannis tells the story of the shooting that shoved him into maturity early on in his career.  The trio muse a bit on their futile little legacies but soon leap into a joyous edition of Talking Pee that includes a previral guessing game on YouTube, a playful pedometer on everyone’s waistband, Yannis’s modest dog zoo, and Nikki’s upcoming appearance on The Burn.  Check her out this Tuesday (2/12) on Comedy Central at 10.30pm/9.30c…

…conveniently right before you flip over to Nikki & Sara LIVE on MTV at 11pm/10c.  Nikki & Sara LIVE: like a podcast for your eyes!

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EPISODE 96: JESSIMAE PELUSO

This week, Sara and Nikki share the terror and elation of hosting Tuesday’s premiere of Nikki and Sara LIVE while momentarily shutting out the demands of judgy Twitterers and next week’s show.  Local comic and new friend Jessimae Peluso (Twitter) leads the ladies in a vivid chat about the vicious zits faced by all three at some point in their lives.  In a surprise cameo, Drunk Diddy himself pipes in to postulate the perfect pustule-killing potion.  Eventually the topic shifts to something more embarrassing than acne: the cocky posturing nearly every stand-up commits when starting out.

Talking Pee brings a calmer end to a breathless episode, with shout-outs to Eliot Glazer’s webseries Eliot’s Sketch Pad, HBO’s Enlightened, stretch pants in general, and the Sean Kimerling Testicular Cancer Foundation, for which Jessimae’s been making some crazy awareness videos.

And don’t forget: Tuesdays.  11pm/10c.  MTV.  Nikki and Sara LIVE.  Tune in!  Okay?  Good talk.

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EPISODE 95: MICHELLE WOLF

This week, Sara and Nikki reveal their hidden motives for hosting a TV show: proving their tween Twitter haters wrong and meeting famous men.  It’s been a big day for up-and-coming guest comic Michelle Wolf, who arrives at the podcast-office straight from getting herself strategically fired from her impressive-sounding job.  Michelle outlines her origin story, twisting from her involvement in the Bear Stearns collapse to her experiments with pretty much every type of comedy and eventually bringing her to today, her first day of fully committing to the craft.  Your humble hosts have weathered the risk and excitement of this transition before and offering their insight on the situation leads to a frank and lively discussion about the feelings of workplace confidence and self-loathing that exist in every job everywhere.  Before bouncin’, the trio talks pee about Jimmy Pardo’s landmark podcast Never Not Funny, Cory Cavin’s rising webseries Model Wife, and Beyonce’s upcomin’ rip-roarin’ scandal-crushin’ Super Bowl show.

Oh, hey, and REMEMBER: Nikki and Sara’s well-titled TV show Nikki & Sara LIVE premieres THIS TUESDAY 1/29 at 11pm/10c on MTV!  Ahhh!  Gather ‘round the telly with your family and friends and be there from the beginning.

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EPISODE 94: JACKIE KASHIAN

This week, Nikki’s just come up from a celeb-spiked Starbucks run and Sara’s just come down from a hyperventilating Timberlake high minutes after the man announced that he’s ready.  Their guest, Jackie Kashian (@jackiekashian), is used to such obsession: every week on her podcast The Dork Forest, she invites guests to rant freely about their unique loves.  The ladies leapfrog among topics, from the hotel room Jackie and Nikki shared on Last Comic Standing to the gym Nikki can’t wait to quit, from the majesty of whale sharks to the pettiness of club owners, before finding a DF-worthy shared passion for Boggle.  Pee is talked about Dan Opsal’s webseries Sugarboy, the NSFWiest fantasy webcomic you’ll read all week, and Nikki’s still-favorite app Sleep Cycle (if only they sponsored podcasts…).  Sit back and savor this fast and chatty hour.

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EPISODE 93: BRIDEY ELLIOTT

This week, Sara and Nikki revisit their contributions to this year’s edition of 50 First Jokes and discuss whether all the flack Nikki got for her cancer joke was deserved or not.  Their guest Bridey Elliott (Twitter, Funny or Die) talks about her projects with big sister Abby and her childhood with dad Chris.  The gaggle of girls remember a world pre-Google when the only ways a kid could learn about sex were useless school lectures and There’s Something About Mary.  For the rest of the episode, the ladies show no remorse about skipping classic literature or panning meandering movies.  Eventually they suggest alternatives of their own by talking pee about a wacky Christian flick, a wild insult show, and an insane old movie about the perils of comedy and extra limbs.

Don’t forget to cop your free audiobook and support this here podcast by heading over to AudiblePodcast.com/BeThere and setting up your free trial Audible membership.  Do it for the kids.

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EPISODE 92: NICK TURNER

This week, Sara and Nikki are back from their break with news of humorous iPads and difficult dads.  This is comedian Nick Turner’s (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, If You Build It at UCBeast) third time as a guest on the podcast, a stratospheric record matched only by Kurt Braunohler.  Nick gives a preview of the upcoming Best Week Ever reboot he’s currently gearing up for, inspiring the ladies, each of whom was recognized in public over the holidays, to share infant-TV-show stories of their own.  Nick’s tale of a date tainted by Twitter spurs an entire talk about the faux pas lurking in Tweets and texts.  The three wrap up by talking pee about Skrillex’s addicting behind the scenes videos, Grace Helbig’s Daily Grace webseries, and Bruce Willis’s first old-Bruce-meets-young-Bruce movie since Disney’s The Kid, Looper.

And don’t forget to claim your free audiobook and gain major points in YHTBT’s pointbook by heading to audiblepodcast.com/BeThere and setting up your free trial Audible membership.  You’ll get a book, the podcast’ll get some cash, everybody wins.  Hop to it.

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EPISODE 91: EMMY BLOTNICK & GABE GRONLI

This week, the ladies start off by introducing the first company brave enough to sponsor You Had To Be There: Audible.com!  Audible hosts a virtually limitless selection of audio books and they currently have a sweet deal going on: if you start a no-fee risk-free month-long trial via audiblepodcast.com/BeThere, you get a no-questions-asked audiobook fer keeps and (as long as you follow that link) YHTBT’ll get some coin tossed its way.  So please do that!

Then, after passing judgement on sexy cell phones, celebrity commentators, and TV doctors, Nikki and Sara take you further behind-the-scenes of their in-the-works series by welcoming writers Emmy Blotnick and Gabe Gronli to the podcast.  Their conversation is peppered with embarrassing tales that are hilarious in hindsight, but what it really zeroes in on are infections, everything from your deadly staph to your pesky urinary tract.  The gang eventually talk some figurative pee about good ol’ Radiolab, a newfound favorite fruit, a sleek design blog, and former guest Joe DeRosa’s Nikki-starring web series We Should Break Up.

And FYI: Sara and Nikki will be taking next week off due to holidays and travel and things, but to help fill the silence you should explore the podcast’s back-catalog, check out their new show’s MTV and FB pages, and get cracking on that free audiobook we discussed earlier.

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EPISODE 90: H. ALAN SCOTT

This week the ladies may seem hostile up top, but that’s only because of their air travel woes and rebelling brains.  Sara’s actually been pretty happy lately, having just spent the weekend joyriding around Richmond on a Christmas-house hunt, a family tradition.  Nikki’s known her guest, the comic and writer H. Alan Scott (Twitter, HuffPo), since high school, where they both had their first forays into performance thanks to theater.  After addressing the universal confusion of dick pics and dental dams, H.A.S. reveals what he’s been up to for much of 2012: battling cancer.  He’s had enough time over the months of treatment to rack up some fascinating thoughts on the tedium of the disease and the humanity around him.  However harrowing Scott’s stories get, he always includes something weirdly relatable, like Target’s calming therapy or proven strategies for puking.  Talking pee includes shout-outs to an empowering Ted Talk, a tight glasses-maker, and the utterly addicting The John Friedman Internet Program.  This hour’s sobering and hilarious, but above all it’s great.

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EPISODE 89: BRIAN McCANN

This week, Sara and Nikki implicate the friends, family, and bullies to blame for all their neuroses and therapy, but the brilliant Brian McCann (Conan) soothes their stress through the Hawaiian healing of hoʻoponopono.  You may recall from last week’s ep that Nikki and Sara landed Brian as the head writer for their little late-night show over at MTV.  As a guest, Brian largely avoids shop talk and instead leads a hilarious discussion on protecting one’s castle from every imaginable threat, including intruders, hellhounds, and make-believe fires.  After exploring the board games that drive families apart, Nikki and Sara salvage what starts as a train-wreck of a talking pee segment.  Listen, laugh, and meet the minds behind your future favorite TV show.

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EPISODE 88: ERIC HUTCHINSON

This week, Sara and Nikki rehash their Thanksgivings and gush about their new staff at MTV, especially the inspired hiring of Brian McCann as head writer.  The ladies discuss celebrity deaths and how to live forever through the magic of sampling before greeting musician Eric Hutchinson on a lighter note.  Their chat swerves from sitcoms like Liz & Dick to singalongs like the R.E.M. catalog, from a shout-out to a sweet sleep app to advice on surviving stalkers.  Eventually Eric rolls far enough away from the boardroom table to play his misleading hit “Watching You Watch Him” and a cover of a Police classic.  Kick back and enjoy YHTBT’s return to the music world.

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