Episode 88 - Frank Conniff
The Drunkalogues
Frank Conniff has been a stand up and writer and producer for many tv shows like Sabrina the teenage witch but he’s probably best know for his role as TV’s Frank on the Peabody Award winning cult hit Mystery Science Theater 3000 where he also served as a writer. I discovered Frank as one of the many members of my extended clan of Murray-McDonnell cousins. When I started doing standup, everyone in my family asked me if we had met each other so I started following him on Twitter and discovered he was, in fact, sober. I had his email address from a family group email and here we are...
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Rerun - Jamie Niven
The Drunkalogues
My original notes... Jamie Niven is the son of international movie star and academy award winner for best actor, David Niven. But I really knew him from my parents crowd of waspy New Yorkers spending the summers out on Long Island where he was always the life of the party and where growing up I had rarely seen any of his set get sober. He had a career in finance before becoming an entrepreneur and then spent 20 years at Sothebys where he eventually rose to the position of Chairman of the Americas. He has a long career in philanthropy and currently chairs the...
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RERUN - Clancy Martin
The Drunkalogues
Reposting this as it again proves sadly timely in my community, and Clancy Martin's book is an invaluable resource for suicide prevention. Clancy Martin is the author of the recently published, highly acclaimed memoire - HOW NOT TO KILL YOURSELF - which is also an enlightened and practical guide to suicide prevention. Clancy speaks from experience as he is the survivor of at least ten attempts to take his own life. And as a recovering alcoholic, he looks at suicide - at least in part - through the lens of addiction. I found the book revelatory and - as someone who...
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Episode 87 - John Machado
The Drunkalogues
John Machado struggled wiht addictoin for years before a doctor's visit necessseitate a meeting with an addiction specilist who helped get him into rehab to begin a long process to recovery.. They say relapse is a part of the process of recovery but this convesation made me think that maybe the road to recovery is paved with all kinds of experiences some of which form the building blocks of a healthy life. John has published several books including his most recent works BRONZE JAZZ and JOHNNY BLUE AND THE RIGHTEOUS SPIN.
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Episode 86 - John Giordano
The Drunkalogues
John Giordano grew up in the Bronx, a child of organized crime and despite joining his first gang at the age of ten managed to save himself from that fate thru his dedication to the discipline of competitive martial arts. But when his recreational drug use spiraled out of control in his twenties, he suddenly found himself on the receiving end of an intervention organized by the same criminals who raised him but also loved him. He made it out the other side, but it was not easy. And he went on to build a small and innovative business empire in the world of rehab and recovery. He has a new...
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Rerun - Episode 31 - Eric Hahn
The Drunkalogues
Keep seeing Eric in my social media feed, and he is always just so frikken funny, innovative and original. Impecable delivery. Check him out! He talks here a lot here about what it was like to grow up as a gay man in the mid-west! Eric Hahn is a stand up comedian who grew up in a steel town in Ohio where he started drinking at age 12. He narrowly escaped a career as a butcher before finding his way to Los Angeles via a lucrative career in the restaurant business which was upended when his employers saw his first stand up set on YouTube. I realized Eric was...
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Episode 85 - David Styne
The Drunkalogues
I first met David when he was an agent at CAA repping the likes of Oliver Stone and other high profile filmmakers and writers. He was part of a powerful club I only got glimpses of and boy did it look fun. But it was also addictive, and he shares here the journey to a more measured form of contententmen.
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Episode 84 - Nick Jonsson
The Drunkalogues
Nick Jonsson grew up in Sweden where drinking beer was kind of a way of life. His drinking escalated when he moved to Australia for college and then got out of control when he started working in advertising and PR in Southeast Asia where the ex-pat community thrived in a lively and inexpensive bar scene. His life was turned upside down after a couple job losses and he soon found himself drinking just to make it through the day. Eventually, he was hospitalized and managed through phamaceutical intervention and twelve steps to get sober. When a friend and colleague lost his...
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Episode 83 - Powerful Eric
The Drunkalogues
This episode is largely about addiction to pornography as Powerful Eric struggled for years to overcome his own pornography addiction. Ultimately, he stumbled on a shift in perspective that helped him get well, and he has built on that shift to create a program for other addicts that shares some of the tools I employ as well. While this podcast is largely about drug and alcohol addiction, addictive behaviors share so many similarities and sometimes it just gets harder once alcohol has been removed from the equation!
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Episode 82 - Tom Vaughan
The Drunkalogues
I came across Tom Vaughan on twitter and started following him for his helpful screenwriting tips, and then one day he tweeted something about his sobriety and I reached out to see if we would be interested in coming on the pod. He graciously agreed, and I imagined some sort of quasi-scholarly discussion about story structure and sobriety. Little did I realize, Tom and I had crossed paths in my most formative Hollywood years and shared so much in common... not least of all being our penchant for pre-pubescent car theft! You can tune into his many screenwriting resources at...
info_outlineI love this episode b/c David is so damn articulate and wise and he recognizes patterns in his own behavior that prove insturmental in changing it. It's also a great story...
Orignal notes:
David G was raised in a religious cult where he learned early on to keep his family's membership secret. It was a lesson that would serve him too well as his alcoholism deepened and yet he still managed to keep it from everyone close to him until the burden of his addiction proved too much. He got help and came to understand that his self-worth need not be tied to his failure or accomplishments.
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