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The Department of Tangents Podcast

Years ago, playing a sort of improv game with friends in which we all picked super powers based on our personalities, I dubbed myself “Tangent Lad.” I was not a very strong superhero, and I could not defeat a super villain on my own, but I could distract them with Monty Python quotes and football trivia. I have many times since apologized to an interview subject in my capacity as a journalist by saying, “I am either very good or very bad at tangents, depending on how you feel about tangents.”

I had a rough time coming up with the concept and naming this blog/podcast. I knew I wanted to create a place where I could address things I’m passionate about – comedy, music, and horror. Finding a name that communicated all three of those things proved a bit impossible. I bugged my friends, and they all tried to help. To no avail. Then I thought, maybe I’m approaching this from the wrong angle. Maybe my lack of focus should be the focus.

As a journalist, I have written for The Boston Globe since 2000, starting out writing CD reviews and then writing a regular column on comedy for seven and a half years. I still contribute there, and to Kirkus Reviews, and other publications. I’m also a musician, and released my debut full-length album, Blue Skies and Broken Arrows, in March of 2015. And I’ve been publishing short horror fiction for a couple of years.

I like to climb into things I love and see how they operate. That’s what the Department of Tangents is for. The main thing here is love. To talk about the things that make I’ve loved forever, and some new things that might stand the test and be around, at least for me, for decades to come. I’ve had to be critical in my writing at times, and it might not all be nonstop roses here, but in the end, what I really want to talk about is the good stuff. That’s why I will regularly write about things I think are “Perfect,” even if someone can demonstrate empirically that they are flawed. Still perfect to me.

Also, fish.

I hope you, dear anonymous surfer person, will come to expect only the highest-quality, free-range, grass-fed tangents. And I hope some of you love the same things I do and find it useful. Or at least a welcome distraction until the others get here.

  1. All Episodes
  2. DoT EP28 The Women In Comedy Festival 2017 Edition with the Femmedy Trio, Caitlin Gill, Reformed Whores, Erin Judge and Kaytlin Bailey of CAKE Comedy, and founders Michelle Barbera and Elyse Schuerman, Plus New Music from Scott H. Biram

DoT EP28 The Women In Comedy Festival 2017 Edition with the Femmedy Trio, Caitlin Gill, Reformed Whores, Erin Judge and Kaytlin Bailey of CAKE Comedy, and founders Michelle Barbera and Elyse Schuerman, Plus New Music from Scott H. Biram

Apr 28, 2017

Last year, I was sad to see one of my favorite festivals, the Women In Comedy Festival, take a hiatus. "Hiatus" can mean bad things for a festival. But in the case of the WICF, it meant that they were expanding, building a podcast network, presenting more live shows year round, and creating a news and humor portal. And this year, they came back with a bigger festival than they'd ever attempted, 89 shows and workshops over five days. I bounced around the festival with my trusty Zoom recorder and interviewed people I'd just seen for the first time like Femmedy Trio and Caitlin Gill, acts I'd spoken with for the podcast like the Reformed Whores, and people I'd covered for the Boston Globe before like Erin Judge and Kaytlin Bailey of the CAKE Comedy Tour, plus festival founders Michelle Barbera and Elyse Schuerman. It was an amazing smorgasbord of comedy, and I got to see about seven shows over the four nights I was able to go. And there will be two more podcasts coming from this year's WICF -- an interview with stand-up and improvisor Petey Gibson and a phone interview with Rita Rudner. Those will both post sometime in May. At the end of the podcast, hear a great, gritty new tune "TrainWrecker" from Scott H. Biram's new album The Bad Testament. If you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe and review on iTunes, Stitcher, and wherever quality podcasts are downloaded. A sampling of the comedians featured in this podcast: Femmedy Trio Caitlin Gill Reformed Whores CAKE Comedy