HEY, WE'RE BACK

"HEY, WE'RE BACK" is something I enjoy saying when I am alone "playing" radio. It is also the name of my new radio show because I play for keeps. Don't ask. Here you will find episodes about many different things, and here I speak about myself in the third person. If that gives you the creeps you should not enter.

75 Laughs: An Evening with Jonathan Katz

You're On The Air (with Jonathan Katz)

In June of 2002, I took the trip from my home in Newton MA to Woods Hole, MA. I brought more than fifty reel to reel tapes. My mission was to find the voice of my mom who died at age 52, when I was only 16. I found her voice, but I couldn't stop there. I have been recording things, mostly live people, with tape recorders since 1953 when my dad showed up from work with a Wollensack reel-to-reel machine.
I have my entire life on tape with the exception of the first seven years. With the help of Jay Allison—the guy whose studio I was using—I started constructing a story called A Return To Childhood which aired on This American Life a year or two later. Then i met (on the phone) Amanda Aronczyk and Dean Olsher. They offered me a regular spot on his show—The Next Big Thing. I did a call-in show with
Jon benjamin, Tom Leopold, David Mamet, Andy Kindler, David Cross, Al Franken, and many other funny people named Silverman.

Pathetic Men—“one man, one device”

Pathetic Men is an organization of men who are able to celebrate their pathetic nature. There are two of us so far: my friend Tom Snyder and myself. So far. our most complex exploration of this theme can be found in the animated documentary called The Traveling Talent Show with Bob Balaban, David Paymer, Tom Leopold, Jen Shulman, Terry Gross, Julia Katz along with many talented men, women and children from across the United States.

You will also be able to hear about two men who, against their wives’ better judgment, opened a venison-only restaurant in the heart of New York City; a home for Re-enactors; and you will also meet a man who is both on death row and Weight Watchers. If he can lose the weight before his execution, his lawyer has promised him a six-figure endorsement deal.

Coming soon is an interview with a man claiming to be the brains behind the Bush administration.