Podcast appearances and mentions of shawn westfall

Live from Awesome Con 2023! The three amigos are joined by our good amigo, Shawn Westfall (@shawnwestfall), to talk Top Chef to a decreasing amount of people live in Washington DC!  Thank you to Steve from the Two Guys Into Fridays podcast for recording the episode! ----more---- Subscribe for new episodes every Monday. Rate us 5 stars and let us know what you had for dinner last night in the review! This episode was edited by Bryan A Jackson. The Pod Chef theme song was produced and performed by Jeff Ray.  Pod Chef Links Follow us on Instagram and Twitter - @podchefpodcast Follow Bryan on Instagram - @bjacksonininaction Follow Jamal on Instagram - @hell0newman Our intro was produced and performed by Jeff Ray - https://www.instagram.com/jeffrayfilms/

Mikael surprising us with a massive, audible fart. For the better part of two decades, if you were talking improv comedy in Washington, D.C., you were talking Shawn Westfall. The man established the curriculums taught to countless performers in the city, founded and ran his own improv theater (RIP Unified Scene!), and enthralled innumerable audiences with his longtime comedic partner Mikael Johnson as part of the improv duo ShawnMikael[s]. While Shawn left DC and now calls Portland, OR home, he was back in town for the holidays, and I was lucky enough to get him on the show alongside Mikael. They're both as funny as ever, and I think you'll love ("and share?," said in my guiltiest Jewish mother voice) the episode. Also, the episode title will make zero sense unless you listen to it, so you kinda have to now? Oh, and the photo is a shot-by-shot as Mikael surprised us with a massive, audible fart. I love cerebral comedy! Click here to listen to the latest episode of Papa's Basement in your browser. Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher YouTube Follow this episode's cast on Twitter and Instagram: Shawn Westfall - Twitter - @ShawnWestfall, Instagram - @ShawnWestfall Mikael Johnson - Instagram - @MikaelLJohn John Papageorgiou - Twitter - @PapasBasement, Instagram - @PapasBasement

 As listeners will know, A Positive Jam Season 2 host Shawn Westfall has called Separation Sunday our generation's The Wasteland, and so our final bonus episode of the season puts that to the test. We read T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland in a Craig Finn-inspired voice. We think and hope you will enjoy it as another lens on the wisdom of The Hold Steady. You can follow along here: https://poets.org/poem/waste-land This wraps up season 2. Get in touch with us on Twitter at @shawnwestfall, @mbrookstaylor, or @danielshortman, or @shortmanstudios. Email us at mail@shortmanstudios.com. And hold steady.

There's maybe no better song to appreciate the Hold Steady than "Stevie Nix", track 6 on Separation Sunday. The song hits for the Hold Steady cycle, with hard rock, balladry, howling vocals, sharp lyrics, storytelling, shifting perspectives, and epic songwriting. To break it all down, we have Shawn Westfall, Mike Taylor, and Daniel Shvartsman on the call, as well as Kyle Undem, a special guest making his second appearance on A Positive Jam and repping the Twin Cities to explain why Profane Existence matters so much. Lawwwwd, to be a Hold Steady listener forever. We also have a special contest for this episode, with a chance to win a copy of either Separation Sunday or the Hold Steady's newest album, Open Door Policy. Listen to the intro or check out our twitter account, @shortmanstudios, for details!

The gateway drug to the Hold Steady. An entrant in the lost best-of-the 2000s Rhino compilation. A straight ahead pop-rock song with verses and choruses and refrains. A backing singer. An emotional gut punch. A study in narrative denial. And a fairly simple song to discuss. That's track 3 on Separation Sunday, the single "Little Hoodrat Friend." Shawn Westfall, Mike Taylor, and Daniel Shvartsman talk about why the song works, and why you don't have to dig too deep to figure it out.

Separation Sunday, the Hold Steady's second album and the subject of season 2 of A Positive Jam, kicks off with "Hornets! Hornets!", a track that shows both how much the band grew between the recording of their debut (Almost Killed Me) and Separation Sunday and how much they were staying the same. A fuller sound, lyrics with both call-backs and new settings, and songwriting that takes things up to another level. "Hornets! Hornets!" is as distinctive and classic as an album opener gets. Shawn Westfall, Mike Taylor, and Daniel Shvartsman break down all the good stuff, including a thorough Kate Bush analysis, the importance of organs to Craig Finn, and how the album's Catholic themes pop up in lines you might least expect.

Separation Sunday is many things, but it's hard to listen to the Hold Steady's breakthrough and not think of Catholicism, nor of Rock and Roll.   As we lead into season 2 of A Positive Jam, covering Separation Sunday, we thought it would be fun to break down a highly subjective playlist of the best in Catholic (and catholic) Rock. Listen to this episode to hear how our three co-hosts - Shawn Westfall, Mike Taylor, and Daniel Shvartsman - view the canon of Catholic Rock.   Check out the full playlist here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4sibmfkeyp6fVxJPK2EJWO And stay tuned for the first full episode of Season 2 on January 6th. Hold Steady, and happy holidays!

A Positive Jam is a podcast dedicated to breaking down great albums track by track. Our second season follows on our first, as we cover The Hold Steady's second album, the breakthrough Separation Sunday. Shawn Westfall, who joined us as a guest in season 1, will be leading our efforts for season 2, with Mike Taylor and Daniel Shvartsman as co-hosts. As with season 1, we will be covering each song in its own episode and featuring a number of guests throughout the season. We are looking for more audience interaction, so get in touch with us at mail@shortmanstudios.com or contact us on Twitter, @mbrookstaylor, @shawnwestfall, or @danielshortman. Separation Sunday showed a band rounding into form, growing in confidence, and taking a bite at the epic. They went from rough and under the radar to booming and the next big thing. In our intro episode, we talk about why this record matters, and hope to give you a taste of what's to come for season 2. Season 2 of A Positive Jam debuts with full episodes on January 6th and will be available on Spotify, Apple, Stitcher, Google Play, and wherever you get podcasts. We will have one pre-season episode coming out next week. Stay tuned and hold steady, this should be a fun one.    

Every party comes to an end, and some parties almost kill us. We wrap up our review of Almost Killed Me (though not Season 1 of A Positive Jam!) with a look at "Killer Parties", the closing track on the Hold Steady's debut album. It's a ritual as much as a song, and we treat it with all due consideration. That includes making this a four-person episode, with regular guest Matt Brooks rejoining us as well as Shawn Westfall hitting us up for back-to-back appearances. Mike Taylor kicks off the episode with a story about trailing the Hold Steady on their fall 2006 tour and how Killer Parties underlines all that is good about the band. We then go into a discussion about the band's use of ritual, including Craig Finn's So Much Joy speech, and the dichotomy between freshness and familiarity. Check out our show notes here, and stay tuned for a few bonus episodes over the rest of the month: https://shortmanstudios.com/a-positive-jam-track-10-killer-parties/

Sweet Payne starts off on an awkward step as it connects various threads in Almost Killed Me and in the Hold Steady mythology. But it rises from those beginnings to a glorious finish, revealing some of Craig Finn’s best lines and some of the album’s best ensemble playing. It also introduces the idea of the Unified Scene, a defining aspiration and mantra for The Hold Steady, and digs into the Twin Cities as much as anything in the Hold Steady’s discography. To understand this, we have Shawn Westfall, writer and comedian and founder of The Unified Scene Theater, join us to explain how Sweet Payne fits in, how the dissonance between sunny harmonics and lyrical darkness plays out for the Hold Steady, what hardcore can teach us about the Cityscape Skins, the importance of community, and more. We also bust out a last Map Corner for this season to get deep into the Minneapolis roots. Check out show notes here: https://shortmanstudios.com/a-positive-jam-track-9-sweet-payne/

Shawn Westfall, the king of DC improv that left for the shores of Portland a few months ago, is back in studio to talk about life in his new home. Click here to listen to the latest episode of Papa's Basement in your browser or here to open and listen in iTunes (you can also use the embedded player below). And, if you want to see our faces that very clearly are fit for radio, you can watch videos of our episodes on YouTube Follow this episode's cast on Twitter and Instagram! Shawn “Keeping Marlboro In Business“ Westfall - Twitter - @ShawnWestfall, Instagram - @ShawnWestfall Eva “Goy Nose“ Kriksciun - Twitter - @OrchardEva, Instagram - @OrchardEva John “Ass Like A New Year's Baby" Papageorgiou - Twitter - @PapasBasement, Instagram - @PapasBasement

Mt. Rushmore of DC's improv studs. The past three years of my life have been defined by immersing myself in DC’s improv comedy scene, and I have spent the large majority of my time in that scene in some way, shape, or form with Shawn Westfall. He’s been my teacher, my friend, and his theater’s toilet was one of the few places I knew I could crap in sanitary peace if my day job took me into DC. Sadly, Shawn has shuttered his Unified Scene Theater as of this August, and is moving to Portland, OR with his wife, Kathy, pretty much as I write these words. Like most members of DC’s comedy community, I’m both heartbroken to lose the guy and excited for the awesome new opportunities the future has in store for him. But most of all, I’m really gonna miss that goddamn toilet. It was my distinct pleasure to play host to Shawn Westfall one final time in the Papa’s Basement studios, flanked by his comedy wife, Mikael Johnson, and the latest in his long line of bastard improv children, Joe Gagliardi. Shawn, from all of us, all the best. And, if you can remember, what toilet paper did you stock the theater with? That stuff felt like you were wiping with a double-ply dream. Follow this episode's cast on Twitter and Instagram! Shawn Westfall - Twitter - @ShawnWestfall, Instagram - @ShawnWestfall Mikael Johnson - Twitter - @MikaelLJohn, Instagram - @MikaelLJohn Joe Gagliardi - Twitter - @TheMightyJoeyG, Instagram - @TheMightyJoeyG John Papageorgiou - Twitter - @PapasBasement, Instagram - @PapasBasement Click here to listen to the latest episode of Papa's Basement in your browser or here to open and listen in iTunes (you can also use the embedded player below). And, if you want to see our faces that very clearly are fit for radio, you can watch videos of our episodes on YouTube

Image of me and Joe Gagliardi, at the ready to take down a perceived threat. Photo courtesy of Shawn Westfall. Hear the fantastic story of John Papageorgiou and co-host Joe Gagliardi getting into it with a deranged homophobe in DC's famed gay district, Dupont Circle. If you think it would be funny getting homophobic hate speech screamed at you when you're straight, well, IT IS!! Comedian Mikael Johnson's also in studio, that suave, swarthy bastard. Follow this episode's cast on Twitter and Instagram! John Papageorgiou - Twitter - @PapasBasement, Instagram - @PapasBasement Joe Gagliardi - Instagram - @devildawg0602 Mikael Johnson - Twitter - @MikaelLJohn, Instagram - @MikaelLJohn Click here to listen to the latest episode of Papa's Basement in your browser or here to open and listen in iTunes (you can also use the embedded player below). And, if you want to see our faces that very clearly are fit for radio, you can watch videos of our episodes on YouTube

Secret number seven: sometimes, all you need to turn around a bad day is a good sundae! DC-area comedy mainstay Mikael Johnson swings by the show to tell us all the wisdom he’s gained from a life of playing baseball, performing improv, and breaking hearts. Oh, and we discuss the most common and outrageous urban legends from our youths. I remember that. I actually remember something from an episode of my show and am not just making this description up on the spot days later. MATURITY!!! You can also catch Mikael performing with other friends of the show, including his improv troupe with Shawn Westfall, named "Shawn Mikaels," and modeling for Mike Sacks's "Randy" book, now also a podcast on Stitcher. Follow this episode's cast on Twitter and Instagram! John Papageorgiou - Twitter - @PapasBasement, Instagram - @PapasBasement Mikael Johnson - Twitter - @MikaelLJohn, Instagram - @MikaelLJohn Click here to listen to the latest episode of Papa's Basement in your browser or here to open and listen in iTunes (you can also use the embedded player below). And, if you want to see our faces that very clearly are fit for radio, you can watch videos of our episodes on YouTube

The right advice can change a life. Shawn Westfall's Unified Scene Theater in Washington, DC, plays host to another episode of WTF Is Wrong With You?, a live advice podcast starring the aforementioned theater proprietor and Papa's Basement Podcast host John Papageorgiou, giving both funny and meaningful advice to all of your life questions. Recorded live on 4/24/19 in front of a beautiful audience that was not harmed during the making of the episode. Follow this episode's cast on Twitter and Instagram! John Papageorgiou - Twitter - @PapasBasement, Instagram - @PapasBasement Shawn Westfall - Twitter - @ShawnWestfall, Instagram - @ShawnWestfall Unified Scene Theater - Twitter - @UnifiedSceneDC, Instagram - @UnifiedSceneDC Click here to listen to the latest episode of Papa's Basement in your browser or here to open and listen in iTunes (you can also use the embedded player below). And, if you want to see our faces that very clearly are fit for radio, you can watch videos of our episodes on YouTube

Unified Scene Theater co-owner and performer Shawn Westfall talks about his comedy journey. Find out more by listening to his interview. The post Shawn Westfall Wants to Give You Space to Play appeared first on Comedic Pursuits.

Let the intellectual spit roast begin! Shawn Westfall's Unified Scene Theater (DC's finest improv comedy establishment) hosts a second evening of him and John Papageorgiou of the Papa's Basement Podcast dispensing wisdom, Loveline-style, to an audience that came to share their personal problems and, hopefully get them solved. The answers range from funny to wisdom-laden (words that look a lot more like "bin Laden" than I'm comfortable with, come to think of it), and we hope that everyone who came got something out of it. For those of you that didn't, enjoy the audio from the evening, and we hope to see you at the next WTF is wrong with you in lovely Bloomingdale, DC! Click here to listen to the latest episode of Papa's Basement in your browser or here to open and listen in iTunes (you can also use the embedded player below). And, if you want to see our faces that very clearly are fit for radio, you can watch videos of our episodes on YouTube

I wanted to do an episode where each of us picked our top choice for most overrated comedy film, standup comedian and comedy tv show of all time. The problem is, everyone else on my show wants to see the bad in people and not the good, so they each went with underrated, not overrated. So listen to this episode, featuring Shawn Westfall, Brian Duss and Bizzy Fain to learn about three standups, three comedy films and three comedy shows you need to check out...and one of each that suck. Because I keeps it real. Follow this episode's cast on Twitter and Instagram (because that's how we measure our self-worth)! John Papageorgiou - Twitter - @PapasBasement, Instagram - @PapasBasement Shawn Westfall - Twitter - @ShawnWestfall, Instagram - @ShawnWestfall Brian Duss - Twitter - @BPDuss, Instagram - @BPDuss Bizzy Fain - Twitter - @BizzyFain, Instagram - @BizzyFain If you truly love the show and realize money talks more than kind words (fine, we like kind words, too), donate on a monthly basis to the show via our Patreon. Some of the rewards aren't bad! Or buy a shirt at Redbubble so people you walk past in the mall can ask you what a Papa's Basement is. Click here to listen to the latest episode of Papa's Basement in your browser or here to open and listen in iTunes (you can also use the embedded player below). And, if you want to see our faces that very clearly are fit for radio, you can watch videos of our episodes on YouTube

A serious photo for a serious episode. Upright Citizen's Brigade NY has closed its UCB East location in NYC, and the theater has given countless other clues that its fortunes in the city are failing. Perhaps more alarming, though, is that the market as a whole for the bevy of talented performers that the theater churns out seems to be shrinking. On the other side of that coin, the theater doesn't pay its performers, a practice which I'm more than happy to call into question. I'm joined by improv theater owner / veteran Shawn Westfall and very tall man Brian Duss to discuss what UCB owes its grads that wish to keep performing in its ecosystem, if improv in general is nowhere close to the pipeline to entertainment success that it once was, and whether the world is an all-consuming abyss and we'd be better off blowing a T-1000-sized hole through our heads. If you enjoy the show, please like, share, follow and tattoo my own face over your own. Follow this episode's cast on Instagram! John Papageorgiou - @PapasBasement Shawn Westfall - @ShawnWestfall Brian Duss - @BPDuss If you truly love the show and realize money talks more than kind words (fine, we like kind words, too), donate on a monthly basis to the show via our Patreon. Some of the rewards aren't bad! Or buy a shirt at Redbubble so people you walk past in the mall can ask you what a Papa's Basement is. Click here to listen to the latest episode of Papa's Basement in your browser or here to open and listen in iTunes (you can also use the embedded player below). And, if you want to see our faces that very clearly are fit for radio, you can watch videos of our episodes on YouTube

I own multiple Taylor Swift books and a cat that looks like a melon covered in a raccoon pelt: I'm more than qualified to dispense advise. Most of you who have listened to the show in the past year are familiar with Shawn Westfall, my improv teacher, friend, and the owner / operator of DC's Unified Scene Theater. Shawn got it into his head that we should do a live podcast show, titled "WTF Is Wrong With You?", where we would get the audience to come on stage with us, share their demons, and we would try to help them out. As it turns out, every audience member's demon was "alcohol" and the demons won. Hard. But that made for a pretty funny live event, if I do say so myself. We plan on doing more of these in the DC area, so if you have been a fan of the show and want to get in on an episode, please check out social media for the next live taping at the Unified Scene Theater of WTF Is Wrong With You? Follow this episode's cast on Twitter! John Papageorgiou - @PapasBasement Shawn Westfall - @ShawnWestfall Unified Scene Theater - @UnifiedSceneDC If you truly love the show and realize money talks more than kind words (fine, we like kind words, too), donate on a monthly basis to the show via our Patreon. Some of the rewards aren't bad! Or buy a shirt at Redbubble so people you walk past in the mall can ask you what a Papa's Basement is. Click here to listen to the latest episode of Papa's Basement in your browser or here to open and listen in iTunes (you can also use the embedded player below). And, if you want to see our faces that very clearly are fit for radio, you can watch videos of our episodes on YouTube

It's all happening, FINALLY. Your hosts Chase and Zazi sat down with DC Improv Legend Shawn Westfall to talk shop about his studio The Unified Scene Theater, talk barios- Bloomingdale to be specific, and Chase and Zazi even got to play some improv games with the master. We think we are naturals, but it is for you to decide. This one is a doozy folks- nearly an hour and a half, but worth every bit and has some breaking points every half hour or so if you need to hit pause and pretend you are doing work. With that length, and because occasionally Chase and Zazi do other things including comedy and music shows that you can see on our facebook page, it actually has been about two months since this interview took place. So, upcoming shows at The Unified Scene Theater (which were awesome) have already happened, but you can see what available workshops and shows are available at: unifiedscenetheater.com

Follow Us On Twitter! @mikaelljohn – Mikael Johnson @BetterRobotJosh – Josh Kuderna @MichaelMoran10 – Mike Moran @DigSeshPod – For Podcast Updates! Hola DigHeads! On this week's episode, Josh sits down on a stoop in the Hampden streets for a one on one with the hilarious improviser, story-teller, actor, &sometimes stand up – Mikael Johnson! Mikael is a part of the award winning improv duo-troupe ShawnMikael(s) with his partner Shawn Westfall (who's also hilarious). He's done some acting, and he's cohosting  the Frederick 72 Film Fest with past guest Doug Powell on October 10th and 11th. Submit to that shit! Now, listen to Mikael & Josh discuss improv and stand up, anger issues, and drunk ladies. Thanks for listening! If you can swing it please drop our asses a few bones via the “Donate” button on DigressionSessions.com! Also please subscribe to Digression Sessions on Stitcher and iTunes. And check out our podcast network, Thunder Grunt! Thanks everyone! We love you!

We're talking, and you're eavesdropping! Special guest Shawn Westfall joins us today to talk about fighting fair.

Writer, comedian, improviser, teacher, and learned gentleman Shawn Westfall returns to bring some class to the show. Mariya met a trio of "revolutionaries" at a bar. After reciting some bad-ass poetry, Shawn tells Mariya and Ahmed about his experience dating a woman who has sex with ghosts. The adorable Emily Ruskowski accidentally crashes the show with her younger sister. Fun times for all.

DC Improv instructor, comedian and improviser Shawn Westfall joins Mariya in studio. A free-wheeling conversation about comedy, art, young love, and celebrity beach bodies ensues. Mariya wants to make a "we are the world" music video to unite the DC Comedy scene. Weird phone calls from the beloved special needs listener Tom Gavin, and a disgruntled local comedian. Mariya disliked "Inception" but loved "Once".