The whimsically dark Nina Davis sits down for a pleasant interview as Charlie grills her with an unending barrage of hard hitting questions.

Nina Davis

Ryan and Charlie crack open a bottle of wine and discuss developing joke structure and how Ryan is a hypocrite.

Ryan Donahue

Lovable degenerate Brook Whitehead comes on the pod to talk starting in a small town and his growth since coming to Madison.

Brook Whitehead

Esteban Touma:
Website: estebantouma.com
Twitter: @estebantouma

Esteban Touma

Dan Bacula is one of the most prolific voices in the scene. He likes to hide his existential oddities behind a solid smile and a tie. We talk about his work-in-progress set, Aldi vs Woodmans, and robots laughing at humans. I also finally found out who was behind the only review of the podcast.

Dan Bacula

Samara's sarcasm always hits comedy high notes. We had a great and weird conversation, as expected. We talked about depression, diabetes, Madison open mics, and how sometimes her life sounds like bad prose. Also, she gets payback by asking a personal question to me.

Samara Suomi

Mike Jonjak's tormented soul stopped by to talk comedy. Besides being a great comic he's also the host of the Black Locust Open Mic, and makes the list every Wednesday.  We talk about making the list, writing dark jokes for a mainstream audience, funerals, whether life should or shouldn't be preserved, and opening for Kyle Kinane.

Mike Jonjak

A essential staple in the Madison comedy scene, Cynthia has been performing and producing shows since forever. She's one of the masterminds behind Madison Comedy Week. We sit down to talk about pretending to be someone else for fun, how stupid marriage is, being honest in stand up, and Adam Sandler's movie "Click."

Cynthia Marie

Sara may be relatively new to stand up, but she's hilarious and it's really fun to see her fidgety energy and quirky wit on stage! She joins me at Madison's public library, where we talk about speaking in graduation, making friends at open mics, and basically every person in her family. I ask awkward and personal questions about Bat Mitzvahs and periods. Our conversation about her Pop-pop is specially endearing!
Check Sara's commencements remarks here: https://youtu.be/oVsItfyyKyY

Sara Lebow

Craig Smith's meteoric rise in the Madison comedy scene has been a pleasure to watch. We talked the day of the finals of Madison Funniest Comic competition, where we were both performing. We talk about that first audience laugh, the relationship between rap and comedy, and how far curiosity can go.

Craig Smith

Hauling from New Orleans, Henry Toups is a fresh  face in the scene. Comfortable on is a fresh face and voice to the Madison comedy scene. He has stood out quickly by being so comfortable on stage and

Henry Toups

It's a bonus episode! Stand Up Democracy is an election show where 4 comics compete for the audience's vote. The winner does an encore set! This show we had Henry Toups, Ryan Donahue, Sara Lebow, and Craig Smith. As usual, commentary by Adam McShane and Charlie Kojis.

Stand Up Democracy 1 at The Nomad (With Henry Toups, Ryan Donahue, Sara Lebow, Craig Smith)

Kevin The king of one-liners is a Madison comedy institution with a magnificent brain. When not performing he can usually be found at the club's bar, annotating and scribbling and rewriting his jokes. We talk about remembering material, Facebook, plagiarism, kindness, and the joke that started it all: an Internet joke he wrote and ended up --without credit-- on a major TV show.
Follow Kevin on Twitter: @bestsciencejoke
Follow Kevin on Facebook: @kvschwartz

Kevin Schwartz

Adam's ability to take wild or goofy premises into poignant and relatable territory makes him one of my favorite comics ever. He's well known for taking weird leaps into the unknown and enjoying it. We talk about rough sets, outfit choices, and songs that hit at the right moment.
Adam McShane:
Website: https://www.adammcshane.com/
Twitter: @adammcshane
Adam Asks Chuck Podcast:
https://soundcloud.com/adamaskschuck
@adamaskschuck

Adam McShane

Everybody loves Rory. His dry, self-deprecating humor has quickly made him one of the scene favorites. We talk about our open mic, his first set ever, and joke writing. We also deal with anxiety, both in theory and practice, as I ask too many personal questions.

Rory Rusch

Probably one of the most hard-working comics in Wisconsin, Charlie Kojis is a crafty story-teller with a pragmatic sense of humor. Besides being 2016 Madison Funniest Comic he is the Chuck part in the Adam Asks Chuck podcast. We sit down to talk about the difficulties of listening to your own sets, people who wear bracelets, and how his fridge is cooler than space. Also, my search engine skills are put into question.
Charlie's website: http://www.kojis.co/
Twitter: @cpkojis
Adam Asks Chuck podcast: https://soundcloud.com/adamaskschuck
Twitter: @AdamAsksChuck

Charlie Kojis

Nobody knows what's going to happen when Steve Horton hits the stage, not even him. Especially not him. I went to visit him on the empty stage of Atlas Improv, where he performs and teaches, and where I first performed comedy. We talk about the weird relationship between improv and stand-up, the royal power of a microphone, losing control on stage, and getting it back on life.
Catch Steve at Atlas Improv: https://atlasimprov.com/

Steve Horton

Cosmo Nomikos has been crushing stages all over town in his relatively short time at the Madison scene. He's not only a great comic, he's also a sweet human with a heart of gold. We talk about having fun on stage, getting laughs at the Argus open mic, and our pre-show rituals. We also give each other compliments, in a competition to see who is nicer. Spoiler alert: it's a tie.

Cosmo Nomikos

Madison locals may recognize Mike as the frontman of his old band, Compass Rose. These days he works at Comedy on State. Besides working the audio and making sure things run smoothly at the club, Droho books the host and feature comics for the weekend. Which means that every comic performing at the open mic will be looking for his approval. Mike knows a lot about comedy and the club, but had never performed stand-up comedy... Until today.  We talk about his first time on a comedy stage, the differences between performing music and comedy, and what a comic should do to get booked. Follow Mike Droho at mikedroho.com.

Sets On State

Sets On State

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