I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Los Angeles Comedian, Writer, Director, and Producer Zack Kahn. With frequent standup gigs around Southern California, millions of video hits, and multiple projects both under his belt and always in the making, he was gracious in taking the time to sit down with me to “talk shop”. Here is the exact word-for-word transcription of our conversation:

BTTV: Good afternoon Zack, thank you again for taking the time to sit down and talk with me today. So… what’s crak-a-lack-ing?

ZK: A lot. A lot’s crak-a-lack-ing. Thanks for coming all this way to talk to me. How was the flight?

BTTV: Totally awesome. Ok, so, like, you totally wear a lot of hats. Comedian. Producer. Director, Writer. Of everything you’re currently involved in, wherein exactly would you say lays your true passion?

ZK: Tupperware.

BTTV: Oh totally, I can see that. Speaking of, I recently caught one of your short films, FOREIGN FILM THEATRE. Now as you may be aware, there is this stigma out on the streets, just a general feeling, if you will, about foreign films being “stupid and boring”. Thankfully with your hard-work and dedication to uncovering the truth in this web-series, that stigmata is slowly being shattered. Thoughts?

ZK: I’m glad you brought that up. I mean, let’s face it, all old foreign films totally suck. That’s just a given. So in my approach, I tried to modernize them and make them more accessible to today’s crowd. “Das Boot” and “13 Going on 30,” for example, aren’t really all that different when you examine them from a filmmaking perspective.

BTTV: Ok, speaking of films, I see you’ve worked on a number of films, not to mention being the personal assistant to Jeffrey Tambor… did you ever get to play with Franklin? Because he was my favorite character on that fucking show.

ZK: You IMDB’d me, huh? Only some of those credits are mine. IMDB won’t return my emails in regards to correcting it, though. That other Zack Kahn is doing quite well! Props to him. Anyway, I worked for Jeffrey while I was still at NYU so that was just before “Arrested Development.” I have actually never met Franklin but I saw him with his girlfriend at a record store out here a few months ago and he looked happy and healthy. Jeffrey is one of my comedic mentors and I’ve been fortunate enough to stay in touch with him over the years. I’ve already learned so much from him. He’s a great dude.

BTTV: Hahahahaha for real. Kids ALL OVER fucking town. Ok, speaking of famous people, are you aware of Zack Khan, Britain’s biggest body builder(http://www.thebiguniverse.com/zackkhan/bio.html)? Has he contacted you regarding your domain name and/or challenged you to a battle? I know when I bought my domain name I was originally going for just www.laurenwood.com but then Lauren Wood already had it and I was like “Bitch, please!” and she was all “Hello? Pretty Woman? Fallen?” and I was like, “Shit, you win. That song is totally good.”

ZK: We’re always getting confused but our last names are actually spelled differently. His is “Khan,” from the Latin word meaning “Muscle Dude” while my last name is spelled “Kahn” from the Greek word meaning “Toothbrush.” It can be hard at times because I just want to make people laugh but strangers will constantly come up to me and ask me to lift really heavy shit.

BTTV: Fuck yes! Exactly! Ok, so since this is a music and culture magazine and all, and we’ve already touched on the culture stuff with that shit about the foreign films or whatever, tell me a little about who you’re listening to on the iPod right now.

ZK: I love all kinds of music except anything that sucks. Stuff in my rotation now includes the new Tom Petty, Eminem, Beck, Toadies, The Thermals, The Vines. Slick Rick, Beastie Boys, Dirt Nasty, Bob Marley, Fatboy Slim, and Phish. Yeah, I said it. Phish. I just saw them again this year and they played all my favorite drugs!

And of course there’s the oldies I grew up on like Neil Young and The 2 Live Crew.

BTTV: ZOMG, those guys are fantastic. Do you listen to Vampire Weekend? You gotta check them out. Anyway, if I wanted to go and check out a set or see you on TV or in the movies, what would I do and where would I go?

ZK: I saw Vampire Weekend for the first time on SNL. I’ll be sure to check them out more extensively, thanks for the recommendation. As far as seeing more material, I have set up shop all over the Internet including my own site at www.kahn-artist.com, my YouTube page at youtube.com/zackdotcom, Twitter (twitter.com/zackkahn), and Craigslist (I’m selling size a pair of like-new rollerblades – size 10).

Additionally, you can make a list of people you know or kinda know that work in the entertainment industry and then vigorously assault them in an effort to help me get a 4-picture deal with a major studio. I’d be very, very grateful. Seriously. I’ll buy the winner an iPad.

BTTV: Rad. Ok, well Zack, I know you have like a bazillion things to attend to or whatever, so I don’t want to keep you. Do you have any last parting words for the Better Than The Van crowd?

ZK: Thanks for finding me. I love you guys. And remember to “Make Fun.”

BTTV: Totally.

You can keep abreast of all things Zack Kahn at http://www.kahn-artist.com/. You can also watch all of his riveting videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/zackdotcom. You can also LIKE HIM ON FACEBOOK. Zack is also a musician, and can be contacted directly for guitar lessons.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Professor C.H. Dalton, the Charles Lindbergh Professor of Ethnography at the New Jersey Institute for Advanced Studies. Professor Dalton is on the forefront of the modern advancement of the study of Ethnography, which prior to the groundbreaking social observances made in his previous mildly controversial text In Defense of Rape and his most recent scholarship A Practical Guide to Racism, was simply some dudes sitting around documenting how people be actin’ and shit. Between his intense course load, office hours, video lectures and Weekly Missives, this intellectual leviathan was gracious in allowing me just a few spare moments of his precious little available time in order to answer some burning questions that I, and what I can only assume the entire rest of the human race past present and future, would appreciate knowing the answers to.

BTTV: Good day professor. In my extensive research done for this piece, I learned that your studies began in the field of Anthropology, moving to a focus on Biology, Genetics, Taxonomy and the promise of Eugenics. I don’t know what the majority of those words mean, but I totally changed my major like 3 times too. Please, elaborate on your decisions.

My first love was, like Nabokov, lepidoptery. But unfortunately my dear, departed father (he now lives on Tenerife) deemed the study of butterflies “too faggy” for his only son and heir. After he burned my collection, and beat me savagely for my resistance, I turned to a new pursuit: observing the behavior of our servants in the human ant farm known as “below stairs.” This pastime had, I came to discover, an academic name: anthropology. So in my professional career I consider myself an anthropologist, but I have also endeavored to discover the biological and evolutionary roots of the behavioral traits I observe, including ethnic inclinations like stinginess, in Scotsmen, or cannibalism, in blacks.

BTTV: Cool. I finally settled on my major because there weren’t any math classes. So, like, what are some of the classes you teach?

I am currently on a research sabbatical in the Chelsea district of New York, but my normal course-load includes any variety of introductory and advanced Anthropology sessions, as well as Phrenology, Ethnography (that is, the study of race), and my newest concentration — only lightly touched on in APGTR — Sexual Ethnography. That is, the study of “Sexual Races” like gays, and women.

BTTV: OMG, that sounds super interesting. Totally hard, but super interesting. Do you have any crazy stories from class?

Funny you should ask. One of my former students has actually gone on to a successful career in television, on “The Office,” playing the receptionist, “Erin.” Your readers might enjoy watching us interact: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbQ20f8uIeA

BTTV: Hahahaa! No WAY! Ok, so you have written all these articles and books as well as developed What If’s? I mean, what is next on your research docket at this point?

Ah, my “What If?s.” No publisher has yet expressed any interest in publishing them, but I have an abiding passion for historical counterfactuals like “What if the South had won the Civil War?” or “What if Hitler had married Marilyn Monroe?” It’s a great hobby of mine. Research-wise, though, I’m embedded among a group of “Bears” at a club called The Manhole in west Manhattan. It’s been a fascinating experience so far, they’ve really taken me in as one of their own. I feel like a barrel-chested Margaret Mead amongst the savage Samoans.

BTTV: Totally impressive. So I’m reading A Practical Guide to Racism (actually, my fucking roommates put it somewhere and I can’t find it, but I for real am) and you make several astonishing observances within. For example your diagram of the Hispanic Mind, and your drawing of parallels between the Jews and the Zombies. Also, the entire African American chapter. Please explain the Scientific Method, and how it was used in gathering and deciphering this empirical evidence or whatever.

The scientific method consists of three stages: Observation, Snack-time, and Publication (or “OSP”).  First, I undertake first-hand observation of my subjects — or, if that’s not realistic due to travel costs or extinction, second-hand reading.  Then, I let it all sink in with a cup of hot cocoa and a short nap (no more than three hours).  Finally, I write up my conclusions and send the result off to be published in a peer-reviewed journal like The Journal of Ethnography, or The Mississippi Review of Books.

BTTV: Totally. Ok, I gotta ask you. What’s your favorite band or song? I see you released an album the Top Notch Education of C.H. Dalton… is it rap?

After a fashion. My frenemy Cornel West released his own spoken word album, and I foolishly felt the need to follow suit. Mine was a bit less well received (it received an official condemnation from the NAACP). I can be a bit competitive, the same way I released that book, “Christopher Hitchens Is An Asshole” (Liberty University Press 2009) after he had that big bestseller about Atheism. I’m not proud of it. But personally, my favorite style of music is music-box music. Nothing soothes me like the tinkling of a music box, as a tiny ballerina spins in place above the workings. That, and late ’70s Post-Punk like Gang of Four.

BTTV: So cool. Well Professor, I know you are on a very tight schedule, so I do not want to let this go on too long. In closing, do you have any final thoughts for our readers?

In the words of the immortal Mr. T, from his short-lived “T-Force” comic in the late 1990s: “Pump iron and books!” Good advice, from a good man.

BTTV: Awesome. Thanks again!

Professor Dalton’s latest text, A Practical Guide to Racism can be found on Amazon.com or by visiting his website A Practical Guide to Racism. You may also refer to his website in order to keep abreast of his latest Weekly Missives, Video Lectures, Class Schedules and Office Hours.

Improvisational Comedy. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? Saturday Night Live? Second City? The Groundlings? Upright Citizen’s Brigade? Blah blah blah? Well, how about I blow your fucking mind with some knowledge about its roots, and we sit down and chat with the dudes running THAT show? The show I am referring to of course is that of the Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis, MN… the longest running satirical theatre in the country, owned by John Sweeney and Jenni Lilledahl, art directed by Caleb McEwen. Nice line up. Here’s a fact flying directly at your face: The founder, Dudley Riggs, was a Circus dude who had his fill of the circus life, so he just up and started the art of improvisation. Talk about reaching your potential. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with one of the co-directors of the Brave New Workshop’s school for improv, Joe Bozic, who totally let me annoy him with some inane questioning for a few minutes. ENJOY!

BTTV: So… how are things?

J: Things are good, like a fluffernutter sandwich.

BTTV: Alright. Brave New Workshop. Very cool. What exactly goes on here?

J: A little bit of everything goes on here. We have a main stage which produces four original sketch comedy shows every year, a school for improv which has over 200 students come in every single week, and we have a creative outreach program which brings improvisation to those that need it in the business world. Also, dance parties.

BTTV: Neat. Do you have any hilarious stories from class you’d like to share?

J: I remember teaching a class that had an middle-aged married couple in it. The guy was a huge fan of “Rocky” and, whenever he did a scene with his wife, would force it to be a scene from “Rocky”. It was always enjoyable to watch him force “Rocky” into the scene over and over again.

BTTV: What got you personally interested in improv?

J: There’s a philosophy in improv that everything you do is right. That makes me feel good. When I played little league baseball and had a batting average of .000, that didn’t make me feel good. I guess it all boils down to feeling good.

BTTV: Totally. So… I heard that some famous people have come through here… dish!!

J: We have a few notable alumni. Pat Proft, Mo Collins, Missy Peterman, Cedric Yarbrough, Peter Tolan, Tom Davis, and… um… oh yeah. Senator Al Franken. I’ve met him a couple of times. He said he liked my work. Not many sketch comedians can say that they have Congressional approval.

BTTV: So awesome. Ok… think fast! Improv!! What’s your favorite song or band? Go!

J: Anything by anyone that’s not associated with the Black Eyed Peas.

BTTV: Cool. There was no right or wrong answer to that question of course.

J: Ha! Just like improv! Isn’t that so much better than being told you’ve failed?

BTTV: Exactly! So… what’s ahead for the Brave New Workshop?

J: Well, we’ve got the current show, “Toyota! The Runaway Musical Hit” happening now, and we’ll be writing the fall show starting in the next few weeks. The school has youth camps happening throughout the summer and adult improv classes starting all the time. And we’re building a rocket. A moon rocket.

BTTV: Sweet. Well, thank you for taking the time to chat with me today Joe. Do you have any final words for the Better Than The Van readers?

J: Tom Petty will never let you down.

BTTV: Ain’t that the fuckin’ truth.

The Brave New Workshop is located at 2605 Hennepin Avenue in the historic (and awesome) Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis, MN. Get all the up to date info at their website: Brave New Workshop.

Those wacky kids up north at MPLS.TV are at it again. Hannah Silk Champagne sits down… then dances her God Damn face off with the dudes of Free Energy. Awesome.

Footage Shot by Braddon Alexander Olson
Video Edited by Owen Brafford

MPLS.TV works with Springboard for the Arts as our fiscal agent allowing us to accept tax-deductible donations. Donate & Enjoy! bit.ly/DonatetoMPLSTV

I recently had the chance to sit down with NYC Poet Ryan Buynak. As an author, Ryan has been published in a number of literary magazines throughout the country, in addition to being the author of the two influential collections; Enjoy The Regrets (Three Rooms Press, 2008) and Yo Quiero Mas Sangre (Three Rooms Press, 2009).  This young literary genius has also taken Berlin by storm, completely overshadowing David Hassellhoff who was unavailable for comment.  Personally, I akin Ryan Buynak to being pretty much like the John Lennon of the 2000′s.

So, when did you start writing poetry?
Poetry crept up on me like a hurricane sometime in college. I like to think that It chose me.

Most folks think of poetry as being something like roses are red and violets are blue, but your poetry appears to be for people who don’t know shit about poetry. Explain.
My poetry is for every one. Mailmen and murderers. Sluts and Floridians. Let’s put it this way, my poetry is not in your average high school syllabi. This is rock n roll poetry. Kick you in the face poetry. Anti Poetry.

What was your first published poem about?
That first poem is titled “With Thrills Cheap and Love Divine” and it’s about what every poem ever is about: Love, Life, and Death.

In your first collection, Enjoy the Regrets (Three Rooms Press, 2008), you infuse modern concepts with age old wisdom, reflecting back while simultaneously projecting forward, teetering on the brink of madness, daring to shine light on past and current events and their impact on societal constraints.  What the fuck?
I was young and drunk.

You’ve been referred to as the Patriot of Parthenogenesis… is that some kind of biblical reference?
Yes.

In your second anthology, Yo Quiero Mas Sangre (Three Rooms Press, 2009) you traverse the country in search of purpose in an age of modern excess.  Now, I don’t speak Spanish or anything, but wouldn’t email and a SKYPE account have been way more cost effective? I mean did you drive the whole way? Hello, gas?
Me encanta viajar. Y visitar diferentes guetos y supermercados. Y provocar con palabras. La mayor parte de mi viaje ha sido en tren o en zancos.

You also have a blog called Coyote Blood.  How did that all get started?  Are coyotes your favorite animals?
They are like my third favorite. I had to kill a coyote with my bare hands one time. I’m just kidding. Coyote Blood is the umbrella brand, the movement. We have a band and a clothing company and lots of artists and poets. The blog is a mixture of all these things. I started the blog years ago to get the words out there, but I also talk about music and art and other shit. The name is a metaphor. Coyotes are survivors. They are scavenging in Central Park and stealing Jessica Simpson’s puppy. They never give up until they are dead.

Who would you say is your greatest influence, and why?
Charles Bukowski and Frank O’Hara. They taught me, in their own unique ways, that anything is possible and that there are no rules in this river. Also, Breece Pancake is a huge influence. He is the best short story writer no one has ever heard of.

Never heard of them. As a poet, I’m going to assume you dabble in musical prose?  Who is your favorite band or musical artist(s)?
Fuck, this is the toughest question of my generation! Devendra Banhart, Kings of Leon, Pearl Jam, Bob Dylan, Wu-Tang Clan, Operation Ivy, Taylor Swift, The Glorious Veins, to name a few.

They’re OK I guess.  Ok, so I read on your website that you tour the city doing live poetry readings?  If someone lived in New York and wanted to come check you out, where would they go and when?
There is a great grassroots-type poetry movement happening in NYC right now. It is fucking great. You can find poetry readings almost every night of the week here. You can find me some Fridays at a place called Cornelia Street Café and some Sundays at a place called Bar 13. Just keep checking the website and blog for upcoming shows.

Are you currently working on anything else?
Of course. The second installment of the Random Acts Trilogy. I am so pumped about this next book. We are shopping publishers right now. It is called “ The Ghost of The Wooden Squid: Random Acts of Poetry by Ryan Buynak”. It is going to bring poetry back from the dead.

Cool.  Well, thanks for taking the time to talk to me Ryan, do you have any further words of wisdom for the Better Than The Van crowd?
Don’t give up and don’t go to hell.

Awesome. Thanks for taking the time to talk with me Ryan. Good luck to you, and here’s to your continued success.

Ryan Buynak’s most recent collection Yo Quiero Mas Sangre can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Strand NYC.  His blog Coyote Blood can be found at http://coyoteblood.blogspot.com/.