Acting with Naomi Grossman, 'Pepper' from "American Horror Story" - 003
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Release Date: 01/21/2016
Sitcoms with Janae Bakken ("Scrubs") - 026
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Janae Bakken grew up in Minnesota - where she spent too many frozen winters on the cross-country ski team, and went to college in Chicago - where she rarely saw the sun, so she made her escape to Los Angeles soon after graduation. She worked on the production staffs of such shows as Mad About You, Caroline in the City, and Malcolm in the Middle before making the jump to writer, where she spent eight years writing on the critically-acclaimed Scrubs, rising from a Staff Writer to Co-Executive Producer. Janae was twice-nominated for an Emmy Award with the...
info_outline
How I Broke Into Writing with Taffy Brodesser-Akner (GQ, NY Times) - 025
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
is a writer who has contributed compelling non-fiction features to major publications such as the New York Times Magazine, GQ, Cosmopolitan, Los Angeles Times, SElf, and so many more. Taffy is also the author of the forthcoming Random House novel, Schrödinger's Marriage. Taffy has been a finalist for multiple awards, including the James Beard Award and the Mirror Award, and has won awards from the New York Press Club, the Los Angeles Press Club, Society of Feature Journalists. She also teaches a phenomenal writing class, but the class we discuss in this interview unfortunately sold out...
info_outline
How I Broke Into Photography with Jordan Matter ("Dancers Among Us") - 024
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Jordan Matter, a Manhattan portrait photographer, is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Dancers Among Us, a collection of photographs of dancers in everyday situations around the world, and his collection of photos of nudes in public places, Dancers After Dark, is a monumental achievement, in my humble opinion. He and his work have been featured on television, in print, online, and in exhibitions throughout the world, including Buzzfeed, ABC World News Tonight, Today, The Tyra Banks Show, the BBC, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, #1 on Reddit, Daily Mail U.K., O, The Oprah...
info_outline
Surf Art with Nelson Ruger, "Nelson Makes Art" - 023
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Nelson Ruger grew up along the beaches of southern New Jersey, finding his stomping grounds among Ocean City’s 7th Street and North Street beaches and boardwalks. Loving art from an early age, he dove into a career as a theatrical artist, designing scenery and lighting for stage productions up and down the eastern United States, lending his creative style from tiny one-room shows to huge regional theaters. In 1998, he fulfilled his dream of designing on Broadway. With this life goal achieved so young, Nelson began searching for new horizons and artistic possibilities. Nelson...
info_outline
Charity with Brad Broder, Kenya Education Fund - 022
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Bradley Broder is the founder and Executive Director of the . Bradley founded Kenya Education Fund as a means of supporting the children he befriended while serving in the US Peace Corps for two years (Kenya 1999-2001). Bradley has over 17 years experience working with Kenya and speaks fluent Kiswahili. His deep, personal connection with Kenya and knowledge of international development issues has led Bradley to focus KEF focus on keeping Kenyans in school to develop the country’s human capital and reduce dependency on foreign aid. Brad holds a BA in Spanish from SUNY...
info_outline
Chef Life with Chef Rossi, Anti-Caterer, "The Raging Skillet" - 021
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Chef Rossi, of the renowned Raging Skillet, is a master storyteller, and this episode doesn't disappoint. She is not your ordinary chef. She credits her success to everything from "kishka and grits" to marijuana munchies to the Hasidim in Crown Heights to foul-mouthed bar tending. Her stories are phenomenal, worthy of a Moth competition. Oh, and don't take my word for it: her cookbook (!)/memoir is being turned into a play and screenplay! Rossi, yes, she only has one name -– has been a writer for many publications, such as The Daily News, The New York Post, Time Out New...
info_outline
Circus Life with Ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson (Ringling Bros. "Greatest Show on Earth") - 020
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson is the Voice of the Greatest Show on Earth. He began performing at age 11 with the world-famous Boys Choir of Harlem. For seven years, he was intensely trained in all forms of music including classical, jazz, hip hop and gospel. Johnathan experienced a string of unforgettable, inspiring moments as a member of the Boys Choir, which included being awarded the lead tenor role for the choir, singing at the intermission for Luciano Pavarotti's Concert in Central Park, performing in a live show on Broadway for two weeks and winning second place in the Lena Horne...
info_outline
Artisan Cheese with Adam Moskowitz, founder of the Cheesemonger Invitational - 019
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Adam Moskowitz is the wunderkind President of and , and he founded the Cheesemonger Invitational, an in-demand twice-a-year event that is considered the Olympics of cheese skills, an celebrates what are to cheese what sommeliers are to wine. The profits from the CMI, which Adam hosts as his alter-ego, "Mr. Moo," go towards The Barnyard Collective, an organization devoted to food education. Adam was responsible for the introduction of Challerhocker cheese to the U.S., just as his father was responsible for the introduction of cave-aged Gruyere to the U.S. But Adam bought out his own father's...
info_outline
Modern KidLit with Amy Ignatow ("The Popularity Papers, "Mighty Odds") - 018
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
Amy Ignatow is a writer and illustrator living in Philadelphia with her family. After graduating from Moore College of Art and Design she worked as a freelance illustrator, a stationery designer, an air-brush face and body painter, an art teacher, an SAT prep instructor, a reporter, a wedding singer, and a florist. Amy was not very good at working for other people. Or with other people. Or around other people. Now she happily works in a studio by herself. She is the author and illustrator of the critically acclaimed middle grade POPULARITY PAPERS series as well as the upcoming ODDS...
info_outline
Miracle Making with Hal Elrod, Author of "The Miracle Morning" - 017
How I Broke Into: Michael Prywes Interviews Artists and Entrepreneurs About Their Big Break
For most of my life, I was a night owl. Starting a little more than 5 years ago, I went through a series of transformations to better my life, and one of my greatest and most difficult transformations was going from a night owl to an early bird. When people heard what I was doing, many told me about this amazing book, The Miracle Morning, widely regarded as “one of the most life-changing books ever written”. I read it (and listened to the audio book), and I was inspired. When I started up my podcast, Hal Elrod was on the short list of people I just had to interview. Hal...
info_outlineNaomi Grossman is best known for her portrayal of the fan-favorite, “Pepper” on FX’s American Horror Story: Asylum. Previously, Naomi wrote, produced, and starred in her second hit solo show, Carnival Knowledge: Love, Lust, and other Human Oddities, which enjoyed a twice-extended, sold-out run and rave reviews (“Recommended” by LA Weekly). It was then reprised at the world-famous fringe theatre festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, where it received more critical praise (4 stars: The Scotsman, Broadway Baby, Fringe Review) and a transfer to London’s West End (Leicester Square Theatre). It later went on to have a successful run Off-Off Broadway. Naomi’s first solo show, Girl in Argentine Landscape, also received critical acclaim (LA Weekly, “Pick of the Week”) and earned her an LA Weekly Theatre Award nomination for best solo performance. Naomi toured with Girl to Chicago's Single File Festival, the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival, the New York International Fringe Festival, and screened a subtitled video-version on the big screen in Argentina. A former member of the esteemed Groundlings Sunday Company, as well as alumna of Improv Olympic, Naomi has written, produced, and starred in numerous comedic shorts under her “Red Meat Entertainment” banner, which have screened at the LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival, the TriMedia Film Festival, the Connecticut Film Festival, the Dam Short Film Festival, the Faux Film Festival, the Los Angeles Comedy Festival, the Wet Your Pants Comedy Film Festival, the Action On Film International Festival, and the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival. Naomi also made a cameo in the feature film,Table for Three. A graduate of theatre from Northwestern University, Naomi has acted in several of Chicago’s illustrious, long-running, cult comedies:Cannibal Cheerleaders on Crack and Shannen Doherty Shoots a Porno at the Torso Theatre, as well as Attack of the Killer B’s and White Trash Wedding and a Funeral at the Factory Theatre.
Notes from the show:
Naomi started acting and comedy with KidSkits in Denver
Started LA quest for acting success by reading Backstage West.
Los Angeles is not a theatre town.
She recommends going to Paley Center for Media, watch solo shows by John Leguizamo, Eric Bogosian, Lily Tomlin, Spalding Gray.
Here are Naomi's book recommendations:
The Luck Factor - Dr. Richard Wiseman
Ask and It Is Given - Esther and Jerry Hicks
You Are a Badass - Jen Sincero
There's No Business Like Soul Business - Derek Rydall
Failing Forward - John C. Maxwell
A Year in Van Nuys - Sandra Tsing Loh
Recommendation from Michael Prywes:
Essentialism - Greg McKeown
A-ha moment: "I'm not acting. I'm a professional mailer. If these people won't cast me, I'll cast myself."
Naomi's biggest mistakes: "Waiting for success to come to me. And not getting jobs that used my brain."
How Naomi plans her day: "LISTS!"
Naomi shares a treasure trove of information, advice, and emotional experiences. She talks about her darkest days, and the time she realized she "arrived." She also gives a comprehensive rundown of her special visiting artist lecture at Northwestern University, twenty years after Ethan Hawke's memorable lecture.
This podcast hosted by New York attorney Michael Prywes was sponsored by Prywes Schwartz, PLLC, a law firm devoted to artists and entrepreneurs.
This podcast may contain attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee future outcomes.