In 2016, I produced the first season of 'Marc Maron Presents: Classic Showbiz with Kliph Nesteroff', a podcast about the untold history of comedy in America, EP'd by podcast legend Marc Maron. Developed for Stitcher Premium, the first season features four 20-30 minute episodes about the underdogs of comedy. Episodes featured the lives of comedians Allan Drake (Chapter 1: The Hood, The Schmuck & Miss New Jersey Legs), gay pioneer Ray Bourbon (Chapter 2: To Hell in Mink), the legendary Moms Mabley (Chapter 3: Moms Mabley: Agitation in Moderation), and the influence of LSD on comedy as we know it (Chapter 4: Far Out).
I worked with Kliph, the podcast host, to shape the narrative structure and story for all four episodes. I also coordinated interviews, dug through hundreds of hours of archival tape, directed VO sessions, and managed licensing and budgets for the show. I worked with EPs on their feedback, and oversaw edits & mix with the editor and engineer to create a time-traveling history show that immerses itself in a lush comedic soundscape.
About This Show
Marc Maron Presents: Classic Showbiz with Kliph Nesteroff is a podcast mini-series chronicling the seedy underbelly, forgotten heroes, and subversive oddballs of comedy history. Hosted by the author of The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels and the History of American Comedy, and executive-produced by comedian-podcaster Marc Maron, Classic Showbiz features never-before-heard audio of George Carlin, Whoopi Goldberg, Jack Carter, Shecky Greene, and more.
Subframe Season 1, Episode 5 - Seeing Sound: Ishi & IRENE
This episode features artist Ben Wood and physicist Carl Haber discussing their respective approaches to cultural preservation. Ben Wood is an installation artist who took an interest in presenting early recordings of Ishi, who is known as the last of his tribe. Early recordings such as these, held in the collection of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, pose a problem in that they are in a state of decay that does not allow them to be played back. Enter the work of Carl Haber, whose research as a particle physicist led him to see that we could create a scanner powerful enough to visualize and playback these decaying recordings.
Written, Produced & Hosted by Kip Reinsmith
Sound Design and Production Support: Tony Gannon
Subframe is a podcast that merges the human voice with the recorded world. Subframe was co-founded by Kip Reinsmith and Tony Gannon.
Hear more at Subframe.FM
Subframe Season 1, Episode 2 - Gender Armageddon
Kip Reinsmith hosts this episode and shares his unique perspective on gender as a transman in modern day America.
In this episode* of Subframe, we explore gender roles at the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) and specifically the shifting role of women around the time of the fair in 1915. We interview Sarah J. Moore, author of Empire on Display: San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 who talks us through the iconic and gendered imagery of the fair. She delves into how technology was central in shaping perceptions of gender.
We also speak with Abigail Markwyn, author of Empress San Francisco: The Pacific Rim, the Great West, and California at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, and hear about the ways in which the women involved in PPIE used their limited powers to create actual movement and change for women & women's rights vis a vis the Women’s Board, as well as the fair’s YWCA. Markwyn explains the implications that the women’s suffrage movement had on people of different racial backgrounds.
*If you haven't listened to Episode 0 or Episode 1 of Subframe, we recommend you go back and start from the beginning to set the mood and to learn a little bit more about the Panama Pacific International Exposition before diving into this episode.
Written & Produced by Kip Reinsmith
Sound Design and Production Support: Tony Gannon
Subframe merges the human voice with the recorded world. We compose stories from people as well as existing audio from movies, music and sound at large. We hope you will join us as we explore the subframes of people and the recorded universe. You can check out more from Subframe here.
In Spring 2017, I spent an afternoon with Portland's world-champion derby league, the Rose City Rollers. I joined skater Raven Von Kaos at a scrimmage where I met with some of the most intense, inspiring, and tight-knit group of athletes in Portland.
This piece was produced for Radio U, a partnership program between the Media Institute for Social Change and XRAY.FM radio station.