Worst Gig Ever With Geoff Garlock And Mike Pace

We start 2014 off in style when comedy/film guy Dave Bluvband almost "makes it a minyan" with a number of killer kuts that include dressing up as Elmo and hanging around Times Square when he was fifteen, growing up as an orthodox Jewish city kid, bombing as a stand-up, and generally being a man out of time.  Plus, a special appearance by film critic Gene Shalit and the definition of "chugim!"  A motherload of mitzvahs on this week's WORST GIG EVER!

Mike ‘n Geoff ask for a minute of your time…to get wet ‘n wild in the holiday spirit! Check out all the episodes of WORST GIG EVER: TV! here. GET HOME SAFE FOR 2014!

We've made sure to "record in SLP mode" when filmmaker Josh Johnson "fast-forwards" to discuss his awesome new VHS-centric documentary, Rewind This! (which is coming to DVD on January 14th and it is up for preorder now. There is the standard DVD release and a DVD/VHS combo). Josh is a font of information on this once ubiquitous format and tells us about meeting tape die-hards who scower yard sales and thrift stores for undiscovered diamonds in the rough that never made the transition to DVD, like this.  We also get a great worst gig from Josh's pre-VHS days, when he worked in an assisted-living facility in Austin, TX.  Don't forget to pop the tab on this week's WORST GIG EVER!

Sweet 'n sour stand-up Jena Friedman does a tight 50 "hanging around craft services," and offers up an incredibly bizarre tale of how answering a Craigslist ad led to her acting in a feature film in Italy.  She also tells us about writing for late night, why she nixed her plans for film school, fellow comic Mike DeStefano's words of wisdom, and how she deals with hecklers.  Find that missed connection on this week's WORST GIG EVER!   

Sweetheart of the rodeo Kid Millions (Oneida, Man Forever, People of the North, Spiritualized) drops in to "give the drummer some" and delivers an worst gig tale of monumental proportions that involves an eleven band bill in a creepy old hotel in the Santa Cruz mountains where a river runs through it, literally.  Kid also speaks on Oneida's storied history, entertaining annoying British "journos," what Williamsburg was like before the Goldrush of '01, and the idea of "going for it."  Spend a kouple of minutes in Kid's Korner on this week's WORST GIG EVER!

When ace improviser/stand-up/actor Megan Neuringer (@Midnight, Best Week Ever), spends some time "on the casting couch," a gaggle of great worst gigs emerge; from acting in a nightmarish New York City tour bus "ride," to summering as a dancer at a local theme park, to getting heckled by obese soccer moms, Megan's got an entire ouevre of classics.  It's an embarrassingly entertaining episode of WORST GIG EVER!

Self-proclaimed "gun for hire" Timmy Mislock "moshes it up in the orchestra pit" with dozens of doozies that involve his time playing guitar in The Antlers; everything from inappropriate audience participation to full-on band silent treatmenst to van panic attacks; an overall sense of "tour war" pervades this mercenary's tales.  Equally as engaging is the story of how Timmy has hung up his indie rock boots...for an opportunity to play on Broadway in the theatrical adaptation of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. A cadre of curtain calls on this week's WORST GIG EVER! 

Unique named stand-up Vladimir Caamano stops n' chats with us and as a result, an unexpectedly touching conversation emerges.  Plenty of laffs abound as well, for we do get a cherry of a terrible show in the form of the World's Worst Sweet Sixteen Party as well as the origin of Vlad's comedy catchphrase.  And we also delve into dads, striving for authenticity, fear, anger, therapy, growing up in the South Bronx, and some of Connecticut's finest liberal arts colleges.  Heaps of higher ed. on this week's WORST GIG EVER!

British-born photographer Ben Rayner drops by "the darkroom" to "develop some terrible prints" and lets us how this kid obsessed with punk and hardcore got into shooting everything from Vice photo spreads to weird bands to high fashion stuff.  Along the way he throws us some classic awful SXSW gigs from his band Throwing Up - in which he moonlights as a drummer - and fills us in on how his jetsetting lifestyle actually works.  We also hear about Geoff's photo shoot for his Bass Player magazine profile (which, sadly isn't available online).  Let loose the aperature on this week's Worst Gig Ever!

We go "deep, deep undercover" when funnyman Eliot Glazer shows up in the "sixth floor bathroom of Bobst" to offer a few outstanding and epic worst gigs.  From slaving away at the Entenmann's Factory in the backwater of Bay Shore, Long Island, to dealing with the freshman roommate from Hell, to gardening while listening to the Rent soundtrack - and all of this fuels Eliot's creative video visions (and podcast) - this one's jam-packed with serious L.I. lore, references to specific old age homes, NYU cruising spots, Joey Violence, and laffs galore.  You're gonna have to take 495 to exit 43 on this week's WORST GIG EVER!  

"Demonstrating his smile," Freddy Cricien of legendary New York Hardcore band Madball stops by "the pit" to drop some terrible tour tales (and presumably some suckas) including playing in flip-flops to no one in Nag's Head, North Carolina one night and later to 120,000 at the uropean Dynamo festival (while nursing a killer cold).  Along the way Freddy touches on his band's infamous reputation, the importance of the ethnic makeup of the original NYHC scene, some awful jobs he's had, singing lessons, his love of hip-hop and Phil Collins, and what his parents think of his music.  Make no mistake, we "set it off" on this week's WORST GIG EVER!

"The Greks bring gifts" when Michael C. Maronna and Danny Tamberelli - more affectionately known in some circles as Big Pete and Little Pete - swing by "craft services," baclava in hand, to dispense tales from their time in the worlds of tv, film, the stage AND music!  You want stories from the set of their landmark Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete & Pete? Check. Maronna's torturous tale of getting "Eli Roth'ed" on the set of Cabin Fever?  It's here.  Tamberelli playing bass in Television personality Richard Lloyd's band and dealing with the legendary guitarist's legendary tantrums?  In stock!  Copious joke and pun-making throughout?  This is your ep.  Our guests eating falafel while on mic?  I can see you getting excited!  Tons of tales from the punchbowl on this week's WORST GIG EVER!

Singer/songwriter/graphic designer Todd Goldstein "stretches out in the weight room" with a couple of cruel catcalls; from a disastrous early ARMS solo show performing in front of a potential girlfriend and a father/son "fan" combo, to slugging it out on the road with his old band Harlem Shakes while supporting douchebag headliners, to having a coincidentally named 2013 internet meme generate new interest in the since deceased Shakes.  Goldstein also graces us with the do's and don'ts of making your own records these days and keeping a firm head (and arms) on your shoulders.  Miles of musculature on this week's WORST GIG EVER!

John Frusciante is many things: improviser, comedian, podcast dude, musician, funky monk.  He brings his ecletic personality and fun antics "under the bridge" and tells some epic tales of joining the world's worst Smashing Pumpkins-inspired bar band, getting a tv sketch show right out of college and how that fell apart (and the subsequent movie that came out of it), and the general frustrations behind stopping and starting with both music and comedy.  Gallons of getting freaky styley on this week's WORST GIG EVER!

We "make a little movie magic" with actor/writer Adam Hann-Byrd as he "pulls back the curtain" to reveal that not all that glitters is gold in Hollywoodland - in fact there are a couple of nice-sized turds here and there.  From having "fart wars" with Leslie Nielsen, to dealing with primadonnas on the backlot, to having to pee while during a love scene with Emmanuelle Chriqui, to just wanting to be a regular kid, the man Jodie Foster coined "Little Man Tate" has stories for days (including a number from Halloween H20; one of Geoff's favorites)!  Lots of grips and gaffes on this week's WORST GIG EVER!

Taiwanese Texan comic Sheng Wang "takes the bike lane" over to "the studio" with a houndstooth folder of humiliation; from attempting to entertain college students on the night of the Vice Presidential debate, to performing for old white people in a "barn-like" structure, to not being quite sure he actually did contractually obligated stand-up on a debauched pot-brownie enabled cruise.  Sheng also divulges how he's "turning over a new leaf" and lightening up on his hard partying ways.  Lots of sex on the open ocean in this week's WORST GIG EVER!

"Thunda from down unda" Danny Lee Allen heads "in through the out door" armed with a bundle of terrific turds.  From playing to no one in Poughkeepsie while his band Youth Group's hit single reaches the top of the charts in their homeland of Australia to getting pelted with change in New Zealand to having the guys from Rancid sing "Happy Birthday" to him at "Mr. Brett"'s house after Youth Group signed to Epitaph Records.  Lots of original Aborigines on this week's WORST GIG EVER!

Improviser extraordinairre Mike Still joins us to "break 'em off somethin'" and discusses fast times at variety shows and renaiassance fayres, cruel casting directors, and bummer basement-waterproofing telemarketers.  He also tells us how he deals with the success of others and divulges the innerworkings of improv teams.  Plenty of "please sir, may I have some more?" on this week's WORST GIG EVER!

The line's around the corner at the Euclid Tavern when writer/musician/podcaster Jonah Bayer "sets up on the Campbell's Chunky sidestage" and gives us some skullcrushingly bad gigs, including actual bleeding skulls, innerband turmoil, open flames, the some of the depressing realities of playing on the Warped Tour with his old band The Lovekill.  We also delve deep into the curmugeonly old punk dude talk, which inevitably leads to One-Life Crew coming up.  A lot.  This is for you Cleveland, on this episode of WORST GIG EVER!

All bets are off when likeminded brothers-in-arms Nick and Joe from the Found Footage Festival "step behind the swinging saloon doors" with a bevy of brutal beauties!  These cultivated curators of only the coolest and craziest VHS ephemera touch on the time they put on their video/comedy show in a technical school cafeteria during lunch and how they've competed with televised football and mechanical bulls games at sports bars, as well as all of the technical foibles that happen along the way.  We also go deep into their love and fascination with this outdated media format, the band-like intensity that goes into their touring schedule, and why the term "VHS players" makes us want to gag.  Be kind and rewind this week's episode of WORST GIG EVER!