Podcast appearances and mentions of Allan Havey

Comedian/actor Allan Havey returns to the CULTURE POP PODCAST to chat with Mase & Sue about surviving the pandemic, acting, stand up, comedy influences and performing overseas. We also discuss our admiration for Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, how their polar opposite styles meshed to create SEINFELD, misconceptions about comedians, the dynamic of working on MAD MEN, the brilliant finale, and how precious going to a movie theater used to be. Plus, stage fright, leaving your craft at the peak of your career, and life after standup.

Allan Havey is an actor, comedian, writer, and talk show host. He was the host, writer and executive producer of Night After Night with Allan Havey, which aired on The Comedy Channel from 1989-1992. He's known for portraying Lou Avery on AMC's “Mad Men” and Karl Allerd on Showtime's “Billions”. He made numerous appearances on the David Letterman show (on both CBS and NBC) and created two Cable Ace Award nominated performances for HBO, “One Night Stand” and “Command Performance”. Find out more about him at: https://allanhavey.com/This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5351305/advertisement

Allan Havey (from Man Men, Billions, Louie, Crashing & The Office) joins SOMETHIN' CRUNCHY before getting on stage at the Las Vegas Comedy Cellar to discuss his comedy and working on his act, playing Lou on Mad Men, some of his epic scenes from other projects, meditation, a quick game using his filmography, and more! Tickets to see Allan Havey at the Las Vegas Comedy Cellar through September 25th available at comedycellar.com

Comedian Mean Dave will be headlining at the Comedy Edge next Saturday, May 28th so I decided to sit down with him and see what goes on inside that funny head. In our convo we talk about comedy, writing, his journey with addiction and more! Get tickets to see Mean Dave at the Comedy Edge, Saturday May 28th, 2022>>About Mean DaveStand-up comedian Mean Dave is a regular Cobb's Comedy Club, Punch Line in San Francisco and Sacramento, and Rooster T. Feathers. He has opened for headliners such as Judy Tenuta, Big Jay Oakerson, Allan Havey, Tom Rhodes, and Josh Blue.  He is also the illustrator of the children's book “Once Upon An Accommodation: A Book About Learning Disabilities.” Mean Dave has performed with the Comedians with Disabilities Act as an addict in recovery from drugs and alcohol. He also appears in Nina G's book “Stutterer Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn't Happen,” and he performs with Nina at colleges and events across the US. The two talk about being an ally to people with disabilities and bring a unique perspective to disability awareness. Follow him on Instagram @mean_daveAbout Holly ShawBefore becoming a comedian, Holly Shaw spent a lifetime on stage, T.V. and film as an actor, professional dancer and later as a speaker, coach and hypnotherapist. She's authored two books: the Amazon bestseller, The Creative Formula, as well as the newly released book, Making Art In the Middle of Madness and she was a regular teacher at SAG/AFTRA's conservatories in San Francisco as well as Los Angeles. Her podcast, Performers & Creators Lab, was named One of the Most Outstanding Podcasts of 2019 by Databird Research. Through all of her offerings she has helped thousands of performing artists, some of them Emmy Award winning and Grammy nominated, overcome stage fright, impostor syndrome, and creative blocks so that they can create the work they were born to make and become undeniably magnetic performers. Currently she lives in Oakland, CA where she runs and performs in the live weekly comedy showcase on the waterfront, the Comedy Edge. To learn more, please visit www.performersandcreatorslab.comComposerDan Cantrell is an Emmy award winning composer and multi-instrumentalist known for his innovative film scoring approach, and his virtuosic abilities on the accordion, piano and musical saw. “Hauntingly beautiful…quirky and energetic” says the San Francisco Bay Guardian.  His extensive scoring catalogue spans a wide range of emotion and style. Dan's compositions for film and television have earned him numerous awards including an Emmy Award for KQED's Home-Front,a Golden Gate award for the soundtrack to the documentary Divided Loyalties, and an Annie nomination for his work on three seasons of Cartoon Network's the Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. Visit bellowhead.com

Nick Bakay, best known for voicing Salem in Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Norbert in Nickelodeon's The Angry Beavers, talks about his fascinating career in the entertainment business beginning with Night After Night with Allan Havey and The Dennis Miller Show, all the way to executive producing the hit TV series Mom and Young Sheldon.  --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dunklevision/support

Allan Havey has had a truly remarkable career. From starting out as a stand-up in 1981 to his breakout appearance on Letterman in ‘86 and soon after helming his own talk show on what was an early version of Comedy Central to an enviable acting career on hits such as Mad Men and the current sensation HBO's Billions. We talk about never quitting Stand-up even during TV and movie gigs, landing acting roles, giving advice to Jon Stewart, looking to cuddle the president of New Zealand, and calling me out for mixing up Bob and Jeff Altman. Hint: one of them has passed on. Loved spending time with Allan and picking his brain on life and comedy for an hour. Enjoy!

#587 - Allan Havey Allan Havey is a special guest on The Paul Leslie Hour. Allan Havey is one of the best stand-ups out there and a much respected actor. The New York Times called him "cocksure, irreverent, and very funny." He's also known for his unforgettable performance as "Lou Avery" in Mad Men, or for playing "Karl Allard" on the hit show Billions. Allan Havey has also been seen on Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Louie, Glow, The Office, 2 Broke Girls and many other shows. He's acted in films including "Rounders" and "The Informant! and can be seen in the Jerry Seinfeld documentary "Comedian." He makes for a great interview subject, and it may be in part because he knows a thing or two about talk shows. He was the host of "Night After Night with Allan Havey." He's also made guest appearances on Conan O'Brien and 10 appearances on David Letterman. Allan Havey? He's great to talk with. He has entertaining stories that he tells with a kind of everyman charm. I just hope we cross paths again. For now, Allan Havey is on The Paul Leslie Hour. Your listening pleasure awaits. The Paul Leslie Hour is a talk show dedicated to “Helping People Tell Their Stories.” Some of the most iconic people of all time drop in to chat. Frequent topics include Arts, Entertainment and Culture.

Hello everybody my name is Dustin Pueschel and in today's episode I chat with the amazing comedy legend Allan Havey. Allan is a stand up comedian and actor. Allan has made 10 appearances on “The Tonight Show With David Letterman”. Allan has hosted his own show on Comedy Central called “Night After Night with Allan Havey”. Allan has appeared on The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld and many other amazing shows. Allan has starred and wrote in two Comedy Specials for HBO!!!! In this episode Allan and I talk about the time a heckler punched him, what it was like being on “The Office” among many other things --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Get settled on the couch and grab some snacks: it’s another “Best Of” edition of Go Fact Yourself!As we all were stuck inside for most of the past year, TV was one of the only sources of entertainment that didn’t go away. We’ve collected some of our favorite contestants from the early episodes of the show who chose TV shows as their area of expertise.You’ll hear from tons of great guests like Cristela Alonzo, Pete Holmes and many more, as they talk about shows like “Mad Men,” “The Golden Girls,” and “Jeopardy.” Happy binging!Appearing in this episode:J. Keith van StraatenHelen HongCristela Alonzo from Episode 4Pete Holmes from Episode 9Louis Virtel from Episode 17Alison Rosen from Episode 24Glen Weldon from Episode 27With guest experts:Jim Colucci, Entertainment writer, radio reporter, editor at CBS Watch magazine and author of Golden Girls Forever.Allan Havey, actor and comedian, from “Mad Men.”Jerome Vered, writer and all-time winner of “Jeopardy.”Gloria Loring, actror and singer-songwriter from “The Facts of Life.”Brian Firkus actor, singer and embodiment of drag-queen Trixie Mattel.Go Fact Yourself was devised and produced by Jim Newman and J. Keith van Straaten, in collaboration with Maximum Fun. Theme Song by Jonathan Green.Maximum Fun's Senior Producer is Laura Swisher.Associate Producer and Editor is Julian Burrell.Mask-wearing and vaccine-getting by YOU.

Allan Havey joined me to talk about early comedy influence; studying drama in college; coming to New York as part of a comedy team; doing stand up in New York at the time of the comedy boom; The New Show; Young Comedians; doing David Letterman; Night after Night; HBO's One Night Stand; the success of Jerry Seinfeld & Larry David; Louie; Mad Men, and Billions

Allan Havey (comedy! Mad Men!) makes it weird!

Comics Judy Gold (HBO, Comedy Central) and Allan Havey (Mad Men, Billions) join the show as Comedy Cellar owner, Noam Dworman, goes on a rant about Jerry Seinfeld and Zabar's baskets. 

Comics Judy Gold (HBO, Comedy Central) and Allan Havey (Mad Men, Billions) join the show as Comedy Cellar owner, Noam Dworman, goes on a rant about Jerry Seinfeld and Zabar's baskets. 

Episode 268. with comedians Allan Havey and Nick Griffin who are sheltered in place, social distancing for now

Legendary comic Allan Havey is taking on headlining duties, while Jeff Dye, Camilla Cleese and T-Rexx stir up extra mayhem that heat up the fiery Cabo crowd! Julissa Bermudez and Jose Sarduy host.

In this weeks episode Jason sits down with comedian and actor Allan Havey! He's been in Mad Men, Billions, Hancock, just to name a few! He gives amazing advice to up and coming comedians/entertainers in this episode! Enjoy! FOLLOW Allan Havey at AllanHavey.com FOLLOW Jason Cheny on Instagram/Facebook, @jasoncheny and jasoncheny.com Follow the Podcast - @babuwithcheny

Ep262 with comedian & actor Allan Havey philosophizing on his career in comedy, acting and life

From Mad Men, Billions, The Office, Seinfeld, Chen Your Enthusiasm and so much more... ALLAN HAVEY is here to talk about watching Carson with his dad as a kid, then later making his tv debut on Late Night with David Letterman... and the rest is history • it’s good old-fashioned TV night in the LNPS

Allan joins Mase & Sue to talk stand up & his role on Billions.

Allan Havey

Comedian and actor (Billions, Bosch, Mad Men, Crashing), Allan Havey, joins me to discuss:the key to stop procrastinatinghow to pick the love of your lifeplaying the long gamethe best metaphor for meditationwhy his purpose is none of his businessbeing married and thriving in his 60'show to let go and build self-esteemSuicide Prevention Center (Los Angeles)877-727-4747National Suicide Prevention Lifeline800-273-TALK [800-273-8255]1-800-SUICIDE [800-784-2433]Teen Line (Los Angeles)800-852-8336The Trevor Project (LGBTQ Youth Hotline)866-488-7386National Domestic Violence Hotline800-799-SAFE [800-799-7233]Crisis Text LineText "Connect" to 741741 in the USALifeline Chathttps://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat/

Episode 249 with a very grateful Allan Havey, comedian & actor who just returned from Europe.

Episode 230 with comedian/actor Allan Havey who tries to understand why Howie is so enamored with his firewood as gets ready for the winter season up here in Lake Tahoe.

Judy Gold continues the conversation with Hennessy and Allan Havey, who discusses anti-depressants, following your gut and the time he was on the shortlist to take over for David Letterman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Judy Gold sits down with Allan Havey, one of the originals on Comedy Central before it was Comedy Central. From making us laugh on his iconic show, Night After Night With Allan Havey, to making us want to poo our pants on Mad Men, Allan is a multi-talented man with some great advice. Hennessy was also there. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedy legend Allan Havey returns to talk about his third act as an actor on Mad Men, Billions and more. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Comedy legend Allan Havey returns to talk about his third act as an actor on Mad Men, Billions and more.

Allan Havey is a comedian and actor who hosted a late-night talk show for the Comedy Channel (before it was Comedy Central) called Night After Night …

Ron Bennington, Jared Fried, and Allan Havey are all New York City-based standup comedians. They may be seen performing regularly at the Comedy Cellar.

Ron Bennington, Jared Fried, and Allan Havey are all New York City-based standup comedians. They may be seen performing regularly at the Comedy Cellar.

Alan Havey has been a standup comedian since 1983, he is one of the best in the business. Allan has also been in several movies and TV shows. We talk about the business, how its changed and how it hasn't as well as the most down to earth movie star he has worked with, hint..it's Matt Damon. This was a great podcast w a guy I highly respect for many reasons.

Ep220 with headlining comedian/actors Allan Havey & Bob Zany. Two great guys who between them have a lot og impressive credentials going on. We chat separately about what projects they're currently working on and their long history in the business of humor. 

This episode is SO MUCH FUN! Pete Holmes and Annabelle Gurwitch grace Go Fact Yourself with their wit, joy and, yes, abject frustration. And we learn fun facts about the performers. For example, Pete Holmes reveals that The New Yorker rejected his avocado cartoon, and calls into question the magazine’s editorial judgment. J. Keith reminds Annabelle Gurwitch that they both appeared in a pilot together that was so unmemorable...he had to tell her what it was. J. Keith Van Straaten and Helen Hong sink to new lows with questions like, “What’s the difference between a treaty and an accord?”, and “What’s the difference between arbitration and mediation?” It’s madness! In the end, we’ll find out which of our guests can be crowned the winner. Pete Holmes’ areas of expertise are Vegan Nutrition, Judd Apatow Movies, and Mad Men. Annabelle Gurwitch claims to know about Joni Mitchell's Blue, Commercials from the 1970s, and Secessionist Painters in Vienna. You know, painters like Gustav Klimt and Rudolf von Alt. Spoiler alert: Gurwitch does not get a chance to demonstrate her expertise of that subject. Appearing in this episode: J. Keith van Straaten Helen Hong Annabelle Gurwitch, New York Times bestselling author whose new book Wherever You Go, There They Are is available for purchase Pete Holmes, of HBO’s Crashing, just picked up for a third season With guest experts: Allan Havey, actor and comedian Rodney Allen Rippy actor and former fast food pitch man Go Fact Yourself was devised by Jim Newman and J. Keith van Straaten, and produced in collaboration with Maximum Fun. The show is recorded at the Angel City Brewery in downtown Los Angeles. Theme Song by Jonathan Green David McKeever is the Live Sound Engineer. Maximum Fun's Senior Producer is Laura Swisher The show is edited by Julian Burrell.

The pod is graced this week by the legendary New York comic and cocksman Allan Havey. Havey has appeared in Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The Office. Havey shares his legendary stories from performing at The Cellar in the 80’s and 90’s, his success with women, and even reflects on his most infamous bits. If you have any respect for comedy history, you will check out this episode! What did you think about this episode? Tweet us! @keepingjoe @sammorril @joemachi @philmhanley @nyccomedycellar

Episode 190 with comedians Allan Havey, Rick D'Elia & Dana Eagle. Topics include power in Hollywood and those who abuse it (such as Harvey Weinstein), conspiracies and those who believe them (D'Elia, myself) and those who are skeptical (Havey, Eagle) and the dark side of comedy (that we all agreed on).

The amazing Allan Havey joins the podcast to talk about his Worst Birthday story! It involves him having a threesome...what a tough birthday) Check out his website www.allanhavey.com and follow Michael on TWITTER @MichaelKosta!   Please keep calling 909-52-WORST and leave a voicemail with your worst birthday story or email it to Michael at michael@michaelkosta.com and maybe it'll get read on air!    Fun fact: This is the first time two guests have had the same birthday, and coincidentally they've been on back-to-back episodes

Episode 174 is up and loaded on Howie's High Sierra Comedy Vault Podcast @ Howienave.com. Comedians Allan Havey & Suli McCullough are my guests on what it's like to be cast in projects that you're already big fans of. Broadcasting from South Lake Tahoe all of the comics seem to wanna stay up here and who can blame them? The podcast is the only one here in the high Sierra that features comedic guests performing up here be it at the Improv Lake Tahoe or any of the many showrooms that we have up here at the Lake. Howie Nave also writes for Action Magazine in the Tahoe Daily Tribune and in the Lake Tahoe Entertainer.

Allan has enjoyed a long career as a standup comic and actor. You may have seen him in Mad Men, The Man in the High Castle, Hail Caesar!, and anywhere top notch comics are found.

Allan Havey is one of the top standup comedians working today. The first of his many appearances on Late Night with David Letterman took place in 1986, and he hosted his own show on Comedy Central, Night After Night with Allan Havey, for three years. Later, he became known as an accomplished actor, appearing on Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Office, and, Mad Men, among many others. Molly Livingstone of the JCH Comedy Podcast caught his recent gig in Jerusalem.

The co-creator and co-writer of the #1 international hit podcast Welcome to Night Vale and New York Times bestselling co-author of the novel of same name, Jeffrey Cranor, dropped by the show to talk about the importance of collaboration, deadlines, and bad writing. In addition to producing and touring with the theater ensemble The New York Neo-Futurists, the playwright and author tours with live shows for the Night Vale Presents production banner, co-created with Joseph Fink. Night Vale Presents now produces four podcasts that regularly sit at the top of the charts — including Within the Wires, also created by the author — and recently published two volumes of episode transcripts that include extras for fans of their original show. Welcome to Night Vale has been described as “NPR meets The Twilight Zone,” a sci-fi broadcast about a small desert community where strange mythologies abound, and all conspiracy theory is potentially real. If you’re a fan of The Writer Files, please click subscribe to automatically see new interviews. If you missed the first half you can find it right here. In Part Two of this file Jeffrey Cranor and I discuss: The power of productive procrastination How ‘making the familiar strange’ produces great writing Why it’s really hard to be good all the time How the battle against expectation can surprise readers The art of great audiobooks as performance Listen to The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience below ... Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes The Show Notes Audible is Offering a Free Audiobook Download with a 30-day Trial: Grab Your Free Audiobook Here – audibletrial.com/rainmaker Welcome To Night Vale Welcome To Night Vale on Facebook Night Vale Presents Jeffrey Cranor on Amazon Jeffrey Cranor’s website NY Neo-Futurists Theater Company Jeffrey Cranor on Twitter Kelton Reid on Twitter The Transcript How #1 Hit Podcast Welcome to Night Vale Co-Creator Jeffrey Cranor Writes: Part Two Voiceover: Rainmaker FM Kelton Reid: And welcome back to the Writer Files. I’m still your host, Kelton Reid, here to take you on yet another tour of the habits, habitats, and brains of renowned scribes. In part two of this file, the co-creator and co-writer of the number one international hit podcast, Welcome to Night Vale, and New York Times best selling co-author of the novel of the same name, Jeffrey Cranor, returned to talk to me about the importance of collaboration, deadlines, and bad writing. In addition to producing and touring with the theater ensemble, The New York Neo-Futurists, the playwright and author tours with live shows for the Night Vale Presents production banner, co-created with Joseph Fink. Night Vale Presents now produces four podcasts that sit atop the charts, including Within the Wires, also created by the author. They’ve recently published two volumes of episode transcripts that include extras for fans of their original show. Welcome to Night Vale has been described as NPR meets The Twilight Zone, a sci-fi broadcast about a small desert community where strange mythologies abound and all conspiracy theory is potentially real. In part two of this file, Jeffrey and I discuss the power of productive procrastination, how making the familiar strange produces great writing, why it’s really hard to be good all the time, how the battle against expectation can surprise readers, and the art of great audio books as performance. If you’re a fan of the Writer Files, please click subscribe to automatically see new interviews as soon as they’re published. If you missed the first half of this show, you can find it in the archives on iTunes, on WriterFiles.FM, and in the show notes . This episode of The Writer Files is brought to you by Audible. I’ll have more on their special offer later in the show, but if you love audiobooks or you’ve always wanted to give them a try, you can check out over 180,000 titles right now at Audibletrial.com/Rainmaker. The Power of Productive Procrastination Kelton Reid: That’s cool, I like that. Do you lean into procrastination or do you kind of have some tricks for beating it? Jeffrey Cranor: Oh, I definitely lean into procrastination. I’m really bad at procrastination. I think the number one thing that helps me with procrastination is allowing myself to put something off, as long as I am doing something else productive in its stead. I think that if I find myself, I don’t know, spending too long, just like, “Oh, you know what? I’m just going to hang out and play a game while listening to a podcast,” or something, like really unproductive things. Not that those are bad for you, but over too much time, they do become unproductive because they’re taking away from writing time or actual work. But I think there’s always some business to be done as a writer. For Joseph and me doing Night Vale Presents, there’s a lot. It’s a business, right? So we do have to respond to emails, and do make decisions, and go back and forth. A lot of times I’ll take some time away from writing to just get myself in front of a computer, do those little things. Return some emails, check everything, play the game of, Can I get to inbox zero? Stuff like that. Those are good procrastination things, because they’re in front of the computer, which is where you should be writing. They’re still kind of writing, even if they’re not finishing the novel or the new episode, but just kind of get your body into the framework of what you should be doing. Those are the main things. Because sometimes, I don’t know. Sometimes you just look at your computer from 20 feet away and you’re like, “I don’t want to go near that thing. I just am not feeling it. I don’t want to do that.” Kelton Reid: Yeah, and your brain likes those little victories, doesn’t it? I think Austin Kleon, and I’m sure lots of other people, call it productive procrastination, where you’re just switching modes so your brain can focus on something else in the background, do that incubation stuff that it likes so much. Cool, man. I’d love to pick your brain a little bit about creativity if you’ve got some more time. Jeffrey Cranor: Sure. How Making the Familiar Strange Produces Great Writing Kelton Reid: How do you define creativity in your own words? Jeffrey Cranor: I think it’s just, for me, it’s about original expression. Creativity is, I guess, a combination of finding your own voice within the confines of everything else that helped to shape it. So I think, for me, creativity is walking that balance of creating an original thing, something that is all yours, but using all of the tools and all of the components and tropes and devices that have come before. It is kind of like recycling, in some ways. You’re taking old soda bottles and melting them down and repacking them as something else. I think you can’t be truly creative without having consumed a lot of other art in the past. You have to have a lot of that experience and know how to make a certain thing. But there’s always a part of you that is truly unique and original. Everybody grows up differently. We may have a lot of similar experiences, but everybody has their own unique take on the world. Creativity, to me, is taking your standard mystery novel or your standard sitcom, or whatever your real, like set structure, and then adding your own unique viewpoint inside of that whenever you write that yourself. I think, to me, it’s building out structures that are familiar, and then finding a new way to present them that the people haven’t done before. Kelton Reid: Yeah, yeah. You definitely do that with Welcome to Night Vale, and I’ve heard it described as NPR meets The Twilight Zone. It definitely has that. Has anyone ever used the adjective phantasmagoric? Jeffrey Cranor: I don’t know. Kelton Reid: Okay, good. Jeffrey Cranor: Yeah, that’s good. Kelton Reid: I want to be the first. Jeffrey Cranor: Do it. Kelton Reid: I don’t know why it came to mind, but it’s got those elements of the Theater of the Absurd meets kind of like X-Files, and then procedural, and then beautiful, small-town NPR stuff, which is all just an amazing remix of stuff we know, but it’s so different. It’s truly brilliant. Sorry to digress there back to that. When do you think you feel the most creative? Jeffrey Cranor: That’s a really good question. I feel the most creative … The cheeky way of saying that, I think, is after I’ve created something really good, then I look back and say, “Oh, I was in a really creative mood! I was really, really feeling it then.” It’s a little bit true that a lot of times I don’t know how creative I feel until later, after I’ve made a thing. Then I can look back on it and sort of feel that. Because some days, I don’t know. Some days I feel like I just created lackluster garbage. That’s harsh, that’s not what I meant to say. Some days I feel like I created something that just isn’t as special as other days. Then, when I go back and look at it later, I’m like, “Oh, this is fine. This is good. This is completely usable. I like this.” And feel like, “Oh, I was feeling very creative.” Some days you feel like, “Man, I’m really killing this!” And you go look at it later and you’re like, “Wow, this is completely overwrought. Super overwritten.” It is a little tough. I think usually the feeling itself of feeling creative usually happens about half an hour to an hour into working on something. It usually, if I feel myself on a roll … A couple days ago I really cranked through like 6,000 words, and I did it over a course of a long stretch of an afternoon. I just felt, “Man, I’m really, really working through this. This is flowing really, really well. Man, I just had a really good joke to insert into this paragraph,” and, “Oh, this really feels good.” A lot of it is just getting into a rhythm, and if I can get myself into the rhythm, I’m feeling very creative. Now, whether or not that stuff is any good I’ll know a few days later when I go look at it again. Kelton Reid: I think sci-fi author Andy Weir had a very similar thought on it, and it was just that he looks back on these … He just makes sure that he writes it. He doesn’t always feel awesome when he’s writing it, but looking back, it didn’t matter. That those things were equally as important to the process. That’s cool. Do you have a creative muse at the moment? Jeffrey Cranor: I don’t. Oh, no. I really don’t. I try to put myself in an environment that feels ergonomic and positive, like a good energy. I just finished setting up an office space. We have a guest bedroom that’s pretty large and it faces out towards the trees and the hills out here in Hudson Valley, New York, so I have a really nice view of the mountains from where I sit, which is really great. It provides a nice thing of every now and then you just look up and you’re like, “Oh, look, there’s a blue jay! That’s really great. I think for me, my muse is mostly just having a positive environment. It’s very hard for me to write when I am traveling. We tour a lot for Welcome to Night Vale. In tour times, Joseph and I have gotten to the point now where, we have written things on tour, but on tour we’ve learned to not pretend like we’re going to get anything done when we’re traveling. Because when you’re on an airplane, airplanes are inherently uncomfortable and stressful. It’s hard to sit and write in that little tiny cramped seat where somebody leans back into your lap. Hotel rooms, equally so. Especially when what you’re doing is touring, so you arrive at a hotel at three in the afternoon. You have an hour and a half before you then have to go the theater and do soundcheck. Then you’re backstage at a theater, and while you’re not on stage the whole time, you’re just around a bunch of people and eventually you’re going to have to pack everything up, Maybe go out and meet fans. By eleven o’clock that night you’re like, “Well, I got to go to sleep and get up at nine in the morning and do this all over again.” It’s really hard to find that time to be like, “I have this really relaxing positive environment to really focus.” Yeah, so my muse is quiet and peace. Why It s Really Hard to Be Good All the Time Kelton Reid: Nice, nice. What do you think, in your estimation, makes a writer great? Jeffrey Cranor: Doing it a lot. I think more than anything else, that’s it. I remember reading … Oh, God, I’m going to forget the name of it … Steve Martin’s last book, basically his memoir about his stand-up career. He has some moment in it where he talked about doing stand-up comedy, and he didn’t do it for very long and he was great at it. But he did talk about the idea of greatness. He says if you’re naturally inclined to comedy and you’re really good at it, you will find that it becomes easy to be great. What’s really hard is being good all the time, because in doing your stand-up act, you can’t just be great and have a great show and then the next night be okay. Everybody there needs to laugh. That’s the whole point of your job. So you need to find a way to be good all the time. I think that comes from constant experience. In fact, when I’ve gone to see stand-up comedy … I remember going one night to the Comedy Cellar in New York City, and I remember the night that I was there there was some really great comedians. Aziz Ansari performed, and Amy Schumer performed that night. This was a couple years ago. They were great. I really love them. They’re super funny. But I remember at the end of the night, the last comedian was a guy named Allan Havey, who I’ve never seen in person before but I knew who he was. He’s in his 50’s, if not 60. He’s been at it since I was a kid. I remember him on Short Attention Span Theater and Comedy Central when I was in High School. He was amazing! I think what made him amazing wasn’t the jokes, because if you’re going to ask comedians of that night to write down their jokes, I’m probably gravitating towards Aziz Ansari and Amy Schumer, and just the quality of the craftsmanship of the joke. But what made Allan Havey great is that he could tell you any joke and it would have been brilliant, because he knew how to work the crowd. He was doing a full-on performance. I think that’s the sign of a really, really great comedian that can do that night after night, no matter the crowd that he’s in. He knows what people are saying and what people are doing, and how to use their energy back at them. I think with a writer, while it’s not performative, I think being able to write all the time and publish as much as you can, even if it’s just a blog, even if it’s just jokes on Twitter, just getting something out there and constantly making a thing is really, really vital. I think when you do that a lot, you get really, really good at it. Even if you’re not making best selling hits, right? Even if you’re not creating the next Gone Girl, or Between the World and Me, or something. You are still creating great things that people will truly enjoy reading. Kelton Reid: Those authors wrote some bad stuff at the beginning. All writers do. Jeffrey Cranor: Sure. Kelton Reid: To start out, it’s that iterative process. You got to ship to know what you’re dealing with and forge that. Jeffrey Cranor: It’s a very hard career to come at late. I mean, most careers are hard to come at late, but it’s not one you can easily fake. It’s like weight lifting. You can’t just suddenly be an offensive linemen. You really have to work for years and years to do that. Kelton Reid: That’s crushing my dream, but yeah, no, it’s true. The overnight successes we hear about in any of the major writing fields, so often have cut their teeth, even if they’re just the best selling debut novelist in their 40s or 50s, they cut their teeth in writing, but maybe not in a way that you might imagine it. They weren’t writing novel after novel. They might have been copywriters, or journalists, or playwrights, or whatever. But you see that so often, that kind of, “Oh, overnight success! Debut novelist! Jeffrey Cranor: Nope! And sometimes, even if it’s a very first novel they’ve ever written, which there’s a lot of people who, in their first novel, have a huge success with it, but I would also counter that, yeah, just like you said, they’ve probably done a lot of other things prior to that. In addition to that, I bet that novel took a lot of iterations to get right. Kelton Reid: Absolutely. Jeffrey Cranor: There’s just a lot that goes into it. Kelton Reid: So many novels start with a short story, or just an idea, and obviously become take on a life of their own. We will be right back after a very short break. Thanks so much for listening to The Writer Files. This episode of The Writer Files is brought to you by Audible, offering over 180,000 audiobook titles to choose from. Audible seamlessly delivers the world’s both fiction and nonfiction to your iPhone, Android, Kindle or computer. For Rainmaker FM listeners, Audible is offering a free audiobook download with a 30 day trial to give you the opportunity to check them out. Grab your free audiobook right now by visiting Audibletrial.com/Rainmaker. I just hopped over there to grab Stephen King’s epic novel 11/22/63, about an English teacher who goes back in time to prevent the assassination of JFK. You can download your pick or any other audiobook free by heading over to Audibletrial.com/Rainmaker. To download your free audiobook today, go to Audibletrial.com/Rainmaker. How the Battle Against Expectation Can Surprise Readers Kelton Reid: Do you have a couple favorite authors sitting on your nightstand, or playing in your headphones? Jeffrey Cranor: Let me try to answer that. I’m going to turn to my left and look at my shelf. I do. One of my favorite authors is a playwright named Will Eno. I love Will Eno’s work, and I feel like, when we write and when we first start really getting into writing, or a style of writing, we like to emulate other writers, and Will Eno’s a person I think I’ve always wanted to emulate. He writes plays, he writes dialog plays, but he also has a whole bunch of monologue pieces. The first of those that I read was a play called Thom Pain (based on nothing), and it is a solo performance. It was originally performed in New York by the actor James Urbaniak, who’s been on Welcome to Night Vale since, which is really exciting for me. Will Eno’s work has this ability to be, when you look at it on a page, it’s very simple. The writing structure is simple, but it’s deeply poetic, and very introverted, and it uses the audience really, really well. He’s very confrontational without saying controversial things. There’s some of that in there, but mostly he just always, always makes the audience battle against expectations. He does some really fascinating things with his writing in Thom Pain. There’s a moment when he asks a member of the audience to come up on stage, “I need you for something. Just stand right there.” Then proceeds to continue out the rest of the show without ever using them. So just leaves the person on stage throughout the rest of the show without anything to do, always expecting something about to happen. It’s kind of, you’re used to the improv comedian or the magician needing a volunteer to come up and do a thing, and then you find yourself never used again, and it becomes this really amazing thing for the rest of the audience to watch that happen. Another writer I really, really love is Helen DeWitt. She wrote one of my favorite books of all time, called The Last Samurai. Do you know this book? Kelton Reid: I do, yeah. It’s one I found when I was in creative writing school, and I think it had a limited release, right? Then it went out of print and then it came back. They republished it recently. Jeffrey Cranor: Oh, it might have. I have no idea. I bought it way back in 2003, I think. But yeah, I didn’t know if it went out of print or not. I found out after I read it back then that it was big, hot stuff in the literary world. As in like, here’s a first time novelist and here’s this brilliant novel. All these publishers really want it. And it took her a long, long time to write a second book. Last Samurai, I thought, was so beautiful and immersive. I think it does a similar thing to what Will Eno does, which is to create a fairly simple vocabulary, a fairly simple language. Describing things in not lavish detail, but in enough detail to allow you as the reader, or the viewer in the case of Will, to build out your own world. Some of the really heartfelt moments, or the really scary moments in both of those writers’ work is what they’re not telling you, and what they’re not revealing. Anyways, but yeah, I felt Last Samurai was absolutely beautiful and stunning. Kelton Reid: For sure. Jeffrey Cranor: I just read last year, for the first time, If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino. It was brilliant. I’ve never read Calvino’s work and I finally got around to reading it, so I can’t claim him as a favorite author, but that was one of the best things I ve ever read, and it’s tremendous. So welcome to me finally discovering Italo in 2015. Kelton Reid: Yeah, Calvino’s fantastic. And so is Helen DeWitt, and I look forward to checking out the other author you mentioned. Do you have a favorite quote? A lot of writers have a quote just kind of floating over their desk somewhere, or memorized. Do you have one you want to share with writers? Jeffrey Cranor: I do. I guess people still do this with email. I don’t know if you do this with your email or anything. I don’t really notice signatures on email anymore because Gmail usually truncates that stuff, but back in the day people kind of devised a personalized signature at the bottom of their emails and a lot of times it would be a quote. Especially all of my writer and theater friends would have a quote from somebody at the bottom. My friend Joey Rizzolo, who was a member of The New York Neo-Futurists theater company, had a quote at the bottom of his. So when you’d get an email from Joey Rizzolo you’d have the email, and he’d just put ‘Joey,’ and then at the bottom, it would have this quote. The quote said, “We’re writers. Why are we always quoting some other writer? We’re writers, after all. -Joey Rizzolo.” That’s my favorite quote. Kelton Reid: I hope Joey hears this and takes a bow. Jeffrey Cranor: It’s tremendous, and it was so good I wanted to steal it and knew that I couldn’t, and that made me sad. Kelton Reid: Love it. It’s too meta, so I’m going to have to steal it and put it over my desk now. The Art of Great Audiobooks as Performance Kelton Reid: I know we need to wrap here pretty quick. I got a couple fun ones for you. I have this question; do you prefer paper or eBook? I guess I should add, or audiobook? Do you have a preference? Jeffrey Cranor: I love audiobooks. I’ve always loved radio. I’ve always loved listening to things. I hope that’s not heretical to say, but I love audiobooks. There’s a real distinct art to them. I’m much more willing to give up on an audiobook then I am on a printed book, because a printed book, it’s all your fault if you can’t get it right. Whereas the audiobook, sometimes they just don’t translate well for me. Sometimes the performance is just not quite there, or the book doesn’t work as an audiobook. I think, guaranteed, getting a good quality is going to be much better in a book book than in an audiobook, because there’s just so many other moving parts to audiobooks. I just love them. It’s so great when you find great narrators, like Robertson Dean, or George Guidall. There are just so many really good narrators out there that do a fantastic job. Definitely prefer a printed book over an eBook, just because it’s more lasting. It feels more memorable to me. There’s the physical weight and the touch of the pages. I don’t even think I’m being romantic when I say that, I think that’s just physiology. I just think your body is more likely to hold on to information that’s tangible, that you’ve actually touched. That being said, I’m not opposed to eBooks. I travel a lot, so I definitely have to go eBook quite a bit. That’s fine. They’re great. They’re super excellent for travelling, because I don’t have to have five pounds of books in my bag. Kelton Reid: Yeah, yeah. Hybrid medium is the message. Jeffrey Cranor: Add Marshall McLuhan to my list of people I really love as writers. Kelton Reid: Oh, yeah. The Medium is the Massage. Jeffrey Cranor: Yes. I have that book, too. It’s great. Kelton Reid: My mom recently gave me a vintage copy of that, and I was like, “I think they spelled it wrong. Oh wait, that was intentional.” All right, if you could choose one author from any era for an all-expense paid dinner to your favorite spot in the world, who would you choose and where would you take them? Jeffrey Cranor: That’s a great question. I feel like I might I would one of two things. Partially, there’s a person like Will Eno that I just mentioned a little bit ago, who’s living, not that far from my own age, maybe we’re ten years apart. That’s somebody that I just think, professionally, I would just love to meet, because he’s had such a profound influence on my life. That being said, I don’t know how comfortable I am with meeting people I’m a big fan of. There’s a lot of people I enjoy meeting that I really appreciate their work, but sometimes when you reach the level of “I’m a fan of you,” you just can’t not have shake-voice when you do actually meet them. So I feel like maybe that would be counterproductive. I would be really interested in someone like Jane Austen, if only for the fact of, you have a person who managed to write quite a bit given the time-frame she wrote in, but did not write for a very long time. I think I’m always curious about the level of writing that she was at, which was, we’re talking the upper echelon of Western writers. She was absolutely brilliant. And of that era, there’s so little known. There’s a lot know, but there’s so much that’s been repressed about women’s histories in the history of humankind, and I think that we’re missing so much of her story because we didn’t canonize women the same way we did men. Like, any average man from then. Some just spare Earl or Viscount gets pages in an encyclopedia, and there’s so many women who did not. I think we’re missing a lot of her life, and I would be very interested to know more about her, and more about her writing process, and about who she was during that era. Kelton Reid: Interesting. And where would you go for dinner? Jeffrey Cranor: That’s a great question. Oh, man, there’s a really great restaurant and brewery in Athens, New York, called Crossroads that I really, really enjoy. They always have really excellent stuff, so maybe we’ll go there. My knowledge of restaurants in England is much more limited. Kelton Reid: I skipped over one earlier, but maybe before we get to your writing advice for fellow scribes, you could tell us how Jeffrey Cranor unwinds at the end of a long writing day.? Jeffrey Cranor: I’ll tell you what I did last night after the end of a long writing day, which was, my wife Jillian had gone to the store and got some food, and I finished up right around the time she got home and started making dinner, so I went upstairs and helped make dinner. Chopped up some peppers, and grated some cheese, and made some bread. We poured some wine and had a go at making a flourless chocolate cake, which we hadn’t tried before. I think we over baked it a little bit, but for the most part came out really tasty. It wasn’t super dense, which was really great, if only slightly dry on top. That was a problem. But yeah, cooking and having wine, or a bourbon, something like that. I can’t do that every night, make a flourless chocolate cake and throw back a bunch of wine, stuff like that. I think cooking, having an evening to just cook and have nice food, and things like that, is one of my favorite things to do to unwind. Kelton Reid: Well, to wrap it up here, do you have some advice for your fellow writers on how to keep the ink flowing and cursor moving? Jeffrey Cranor: I think you have to make opportunities for yourself. Self publish, self produce whenever you can. Always give yourself a reason to have to make a thing. Not just you want to make a thing, but make a path that you have to make a thing. If you have a blog, tell people that you put out a new post every 48 hours. At noon every other day, or at Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at three PM, you will have a brand new post about this subject. Make those paths for yourself. Make yourself have to make a thing. When you do that, you feel like you are indebted to more than just yourself. I think that’s the number one thing. Kelton Reid: Lock, stock, and barrel with Jeffrey Cranor, best-selling author, co-creator Welcome to Night Vale and Night Vale Presents worlds. Lots of stuff going on to find out there. Is the best way to connect with that world at welcometonightvale.com? Jeffrey Cranor: I think that’s the best way. Also, we put a lot of updates on our Facebook page and Twitter account, too. Look for all that there. Kelton Reid: I will link to all of those in the show notes. Congrats on the new show Within the Wires, which is fantastic. You can find those wherever fine podcasts are consumed. Does that sound awful? Jeffrey Cranor: That’s great. Wherever you get podcasts. iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever. Kelton Reid: Yeah, absolutely. There’s so much out there to find. What’s your next stop in the live show, the tour? What’s next for you? Jeffrey Cranor: We just started a Europe tour. We’re two shows in. I’m not on that tour yet, but they just did a show in Paris on Monday night and a show in Madrid last night. Tomorrow night they’ll be in Cologne and going on over to Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Prague, Warsaw, and then I’m going to join up on October 20th in Dublin. We’re going to go to Dublin, Brighton, London, and Manchester to close out the month. Kelton Reid: Amazing. Amazing. Jeffrey Cranor: It’s really exciting. Kelton Reid: Seems like you have fans all over the world, and congratulations on all of your successes. I really appreciate you chatting with us about your process. Feel free to come back any time. Jeffrey Cranor: Thanks so much, Kelton. Kelton Reid: Thank you so much for joining me for this half of a tour through the writer’s process. If you enjoy The Writer Files podcast, please subscribe to the show and leave us a rating or a review on iTunes to help other writers find us. For more episodes, or to just leave a comment or a question, you can drop by WriterFiles.FM. You can always chat with me on Twitter @KeltonReid. Cheers. Talk to you next week.

"The Table" is where for over 30 years various comics, writers, actors, and others gather every morning in Hollywood's Farmers Market to joke around, argue, commiserate. Some notables that have hung out have been Quentin Tarentino, Paul Mazursky, Sharon Stone, so many others. Ronnie Schell is a regular at the table. He starred in the 60's hit Gomer Pyle, USMC as Duke Slater. He was also in so many Disney movies including Gus, The Strongest Man In The World, The Shaggy DA, and the TV shows, Mork & Mindy, Adam 12, Emergency, and on and on. Hanging out helping interview him is comic/ actors Allan Havey from Mad Men, director-writer Greg Pritikin (Dummy) and writer Ron Clark (The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Danny Kaye Show, Norman is That You?, High Anxiety) Ben Solenberger helped with the audio. Hope you like it! I almost didn't put a link for a plug, but maybe someone will buy my kindle single! http://www.amazon.com/My-Seinfeld-Year-Kindle-Single-ebook/dp/B006Z499M0

This week is a special Mad Men episode of Unfinished Business and I’m joined live from New York by Jen Simmons–the incredible host of The Web Ahead podcast–and our very special guest, the actor and comedian who plays Lou Avery on TV’s Mad Men, Allan Havey.

This week Ken welcomes actor/comedian Allan Havey to the show. Ken and Allan discuss the beauty of Santa Monica, growing up in Miami, working blue, Catholic Families, watching the Tonight Show with Dad, playing a priest at 5 years old, the magic of hearing your own voice for the first time, kids being seen and not heard, The Three Stooges, the early silent comedies, The Twilight Zone, watching anything and everything on TV, 57 Channels and nothing on, the cornucopia of choice in the 21st Century, Louie, marathoning shows, Sunday Night Family viewing, watching football at double speed, Mad Men, not rewatching your own stuff, starting stand up in New York City, Lorne Michaels' "The New Show", SNL replacements, Letterman, having the same joke as several other people, the validation of being on TV in the eyes of the public, other people defining your success, buying into the 60s counter culture, meeting JFK and the shock of the Kennedy Assassination, the power of prayer, the generation gap, National Lampoon Magazine, Alan King, Carlin, Pryor, Steve Martin's stadium career, setting goals with a time line, training, West 57th St, the early days of the Comedy Channel, Rich Hall's Onion World, Rachel Sweet, Tommy Sledge, "Night After Night", Ha!, being in the moment, not taking things for granted, Punk'd, diversifying your creative endeavors, never giving up on Stand Up, having an immediate outlet, the "audience of one", differentiating yourself from the glut of other talk shows, Warren Zevon, Free Ride on Fox, always having stand up, The Comedy Cellar, Catch a Rising Star in Cambridge, MA, the gold mine in Burgers, how things sometimes just work out, the fleeting nature of live performance, fixating on bad gigs, how comedians are like chefs, how someone else's success has nothing to do with you, Chelsea Lately, Seinfeld, the exciting world of web TV, UK TV, not living in the past too much by re-visiting your youth, and the wonder of Mad Men. 

Allan Havey, who plays the hated Lou Avery on 'Mad Men,' on why he loves playing him, what being the hottest stand-up in NYC in the '80s felt like, and true joy.

Allan Havey, who plays the hated Lou Avery on 'Mad Men,' on why he loves playing him, what being the hottest stand-up in NYC in the '80s felt like, and true joy. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Comedian/Actor Allan Havey joins me in Los Angeles.  Born in St. Louis and raised in Florida, Allan's been on HBO with two 1/2 hour comedy specials, David Letterman ten times, The Tonight show with Johnny Carson, hosted his own talk show Night After Night with Allan Havey in the early days of Comedy Central, Internal Affairs with Richard Gere, and been recently seen on Mad Men and The Office.  Allan's been a personal favorite of mine for years and I was extremely happy to have him on the show.  

Steve Cooper talks with Comic/Actor Allan Havey. Allan has appeared in Hancock, The Informant, The Aristocrats and many other movies. He has also been seen on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, performed on Late Night With David Letterman, HBO's One Night Stand and Young Comedians Special and hosted the talk show Night After Night.