A few months back, when my mother’s breast cancer returned, I asked this here internet to help lift my mother’s spirits. As you can read about in THIS POST, I asked anyone and everyone who was so inclined to send a postcard to my mother, in hopes of brightening a very tough, rough period. I didn’t tell her these were coming, so it was a genuine surprise to her when they began flooding in.

In light of all this, my mother requested that I post the note below on her behalf, addressing all of you fine folks. If you are reading this, and you’d still like to send a postcard, please do so (and tell all of your friends) - and no, she doesn’t know I just asked that, either ;).

Here now, though, is my mother’s letter to you all…
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Conducted ~6/2002

His name may not be well-known, but Craig McCracken is the creator of the massively successful Cartoon Network hits The Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends.

It’s been 10 years since Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup first began their non-stop struggle to keep the fine citizens of Townsville safe from villains various and sundry, and even Foster’s Home has just come to an end.

I originally spoke with Craig in the run up to the big screen release of Powerpuff Girls: The Movie. We chatted at a time when the writing was on the wall that Warner Bros. had no idea how to market the film, and Craig’s fears about the campaign were realized with a poor box office showing.

Here’s my interview with Craig… Hope you enjoy…
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Assembled ~4/2005

That he was born is just one of the many undeniable facts about the life of the late Douglas Adams - author, humorist, raconteur, speaker, and thinker (although it should be noted that, on at least one parallel Earth, Mr. Adams was born a spring-toed lemur with a predilection for grassy fields and the works of Byron - a poetic lemur whose work was not terribly springy).

Another fact which comes to mind is that, of the 7 novels he wrote in his all-too-brief lifetime, by far the most popular is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and its four sequels - which make for a fine trilogy if you’re somewhat numerically impaired. Please don’t take this as a slight against Adams’s other novels, featuring detective Dirk Gently (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and its sequel, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul), as they are both fine pieces of writing, and should also be read. Your reading list should also include the spoof dictionaries he co-wrote with John Lloyd (The Meaning of Liff & The Deeper Meaning of Liff), as well as his book on endangered species, Last Chance to See (with Mark Carwardine).

Sadly, Douglas Adams passed away on May, 11 2001 in California, where he had spent decades trying to get Hollywood to comprehend (and realize) a big screen version of Hitchhiker’s. Thankfully, he left behind a legacy in print that will not soon be forgotten, as well as a few deadlines that are still pending.

On the eve of the release of the big screen version (Iteration? Interpretation? Desecration? You judge…), I asked a few of Douglas’s friends, colleagues, associates, and vague acquaintances (for the sake of balance, naturally) to provide an anecdote they feel best described the Douglas they knew.

As a poet once said, “My enemy is hopelessness, my ally honest doubt. The Answer is a Question that I never will find out…”

In all fairness, another poet once said, “Don’t you know how sweet and wonderful life could be?… So let’s get it on…”
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Conducted ~7/2003

What comedy fan doesn’t know the name Rowan Atkinson?

Whether it’s the snide Blackadder or the simple Mr. Bean, Atkinson has earned his comic stripes.

I got a chance to speak with Atkinson when he was promoting the spy spoof Johnny English - a film about a completely inept British agent called into action after an explosion kills all of MI5’s competent agents, leaving English to save the country.

I’d long been under the impression that Atkinson did not like doing interviews, and could be a bit of a prickly pear (in fact, I was warned of such by the publicist for the film, prior to the interview). When I’ve gone into an interview with those preconceptions, they’ve usually been quickly dismissed as soon as we get to chatting - and Rowan was no exception.

However, I did feel a bit of pressure throughout, as I got the sense that he didn’t suffer fools or puff pieces. Since I hoped I wasn’t the former and definitely wasn’t interested in the latter, I think things went well. You be the judge…
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Conducted ~10/2004

Be it his work with Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows, the creation of The Dick Van Dyke Show, numerous “2,000 Year Old Man” pairings with Mel Brooks, Steve Martin’s classic comedies, or any number of accomplishments too long to list, Carl Reiner is a true comedy legend.

He’s penned quite a few books (his Enter Laughing is a must-read), plays, and films. He’s like a Renaissance man sans the puffy shirt. He even made a return to films as a key member of the gang in the Ocean’s 11 franchise.

I leapt at the chance to chat with Carl, even if it was originally intended to be a fluff piece on the short-lived Dreamworks CG show Father Of The Pride. Would you pass up an opportunity like that just because the show it was attached to was an unwatchable mess (through no fault of Carl’s, it must be said, as he just provided a voice).

It was a truly memorable experience talking to Carl - particularly memorable was the technical gaffe that erased the last 10 minutes of our conversation. I would have been disappointed if I had walked away from it without at least one embarrassing anecdote.
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Conducted ~5/2003

To Star Trek fans, Armin Shimerman is the actor behind one of the most memorable characters to ever inhabit that universe - Deep Space Nine’s Ferengi extraordinaire, Quark.

To Buffy fans, he will always be the ill-tempered Principal Snyder.

He’s also a distinguished stage actor and author (check out his Merchant Prince series), and was another in the long line of my in-depth interviews done on a whim.

I do, however, recall that this whim had its origins in a DVD-fueled binge of both Buffy and Deep Space Nine. Usually these types of immersive binges would lead me to begin tracking down various creators and castmembers of said shows and flicks. That was certainly the case here - and thankfully, I found a wonderful, down-to-earth, fascinating guy, and I hope that translates to print in the interview below.
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Conducted ~11/2002

He’ll probably be forever immortalized as the android Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

But Brent Spiner is also an accomplished stage (Sunday In The Park With George, 1776) and screen (Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, Independence Day) actor.

But yes, he will probably always be Data - not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I’m can’t recall the exact rationale for doing the interview, though it may have just been the recurring theme in the bulk of the interviews I’ve done - a whim. I do recall that Brent was a good sport when it came to the length of the interview, which he generally didn’t do at the time.

Here it is…
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Conducted ~9/2005

To the majority of the American audience, their first introduction to Nick Frost was as Shaun’s slovenly (yet loveable) best friend Ed in Shaun of the Dead.

To the UK audience (and the hipper element of the American audience), however, Frost hit the scene in Simon Pegg & Jessica Stevenson’s sitcom Spaced, where his turn as “intense” best friend Mike proved to be a favorite in a show full of stellar writing and memorable performances.

As himself, Frost was the presenter of Danger! 50,000 Volts!, a reality series that found him giving survival tips on scenarios ranging from dehydration in the desert to subduing a crocodile (think of it as TV version of The Worst Case Scenario Handbook).

More recently, Frost co-starred in Hot Fuzz, Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright’s follow-up to Shaun, and was the lead in two series of BBC2’s sci-fi sitcom Hyperdrive as Space Commander Henderson, the captain of a 22nd century British spaceship tasked with trying to get aliens to relocate their businesses to England (in competition with the Americans, who are offering Florida).

My interview with Nick was another one of those “Oh, what the heck…” ones, as I just had an impulse to try and track him down and do exactly what follows - a candid conversation on his life and career. So enough of the formalities - let’s get this show rolling…
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Conducted ~2/2003 & ~8/2004

Graham Norton may not be a household name here in the United States, but he’s certainly made an impact in the UK.

A few years back, I became hooked on his Channel 4 show, So Graham Norton, which soon morphed into the nightly V Graham Norton. It was brilliant not only for its humor, but also for what it got away with (which would seem shocking to American viewers raised on the comparatively tame Carson, Leno, Letterman, and Conan). A sexual, scatological, pop culture blender unhindered by the often Puritanical bent of network TV in the US, his show was anything but buttoned-down.

Norton himself is an impish whirligig, chatting up guests spanning an eclectic spectrum ranging from Cher and Dustin Hoffman to Lindsey Wagner and the mom from The Waltons. Hell, he even journeyed to the States to do an episode at Dollywood. He’s also keen on audience participation and games that exist somewhere in the realm between camp and delirious rubbish.

After his lengthy run at Channel 4, he was given a short run on Comedy Central, titled The Graham Norton Effect, presenting essentially the same show. However, Comedy Central decided (foolishly, methinks) not to renew, and Graham went back to England.

Upon arriving back in England, Graham struck a massive pact with the BBC. After a few confused years bopping around as the Beeb tried to decide what to do with him, someone finally had the bright of idea of letting him do what he does best, resulting in his talk show return with The Graham Norton Show - a near identical clone of his Channel 4 heyday.

I originally tracked down and chatted with Norton during his V Graham Norton period, going in-depth into his background. I then followed that up with a second interview as he was about to begin his run on Comedy Central.

Hope you enjoy them both…
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Conducted ~11/2002

Over the course of his 40 year career, Bob Balaban has worn numerous hats. He’s been a writer, a director, and a producer, but he’s most well known as an actor, appearing in Catch-22, Midnight Cowboy, 2010, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, many Christopher Guest films, Seinfeld - just to name only a few.

It was in Close Encounters that he played the role of the translator, David Laughlin, and it was the on-set relationship with Francios Truffaut during the film that formed the backbone of his wonderful - and highly recommended - memoir of this period, Spielberg, Truffaut and Me: An Actor’s Diary, which provided a good enough excuse to do this interview.

The real reason, though, is that Balaban’s one of those actors you always see on the screen, and his is a career I thought would be fascinating to find out about. I certainly enjoyed finding out more about him, and I hope you do, as well.

Here’s my interview with Bob Balaban…
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