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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2013 gonna be BIG
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.
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.
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.
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.
