035 So Hip Replacement (w/ Chris Fairbanks)

Comedian, Actor, Writer & Artist Chris Fairbanks didn't let being sucker punched at a bar this weekend stop him from sitting down with Jake and sharing a ton of stuff on this weeks Elaborate. He Talks about growing up a skater kid on the streets of Missoula, Montana, the son of artistically inclined & government employed parents, how a girl and an improv festival led him to Austin Texas, how his love of skating played a positive role in his adolescence (and life in general) and how a recent hip replacement threatened that love. The duo are also discussing their "aging" bodies as if they were geriatric as well as where they both find solace within the hustle. Chris also discloses how swimming for physical therapy taught him the importance of breathing in everything he does. It sounds so simple doesn't it?

All of this plus almost being on MTV's Jackass, why John Wayne walks funny, how Tommy Hilfiger sold so many jackets, what you call a ska band with no instruments and more!

The Safety Trampoline (w/ Coy Jandreau)

Actor, Writer, and host of Marvel Movie News, Coy Jondreau joins Jake for fast paced and light hearted conversation that's all over the place. Coy is discussing his involvement in the Rocky Horror Hipster Show (by former guest of the show Maggie Levin) and its potential to return to LA next year. Being an actor turned web host in the geek world and how embracing his nerdom opened many rewarding doors.
He also tells of his printing pressing father who's business moved the family a lot, Living in Virginia, Upstate New York, & Boston, (and desperately losing his Boston accent), being an older brother by a decade and imparting wisdom on his much younger siblings, having Teen parents that did NOT have him accidentally and how the man who raised him that he calls dad, isn't his biological father.

Also there's talk of how his family all "lived on one mountain," (you didn't read that wrong) his love for comic books and how his dad got him into them, the struggle that comes with having a total "bro" exterior with a soft nerdy center, his obsession with the Deadpool character and his work towards becoming Joe Rogan.

Follow Coy on social media @CoyJandreau

Painstaking Trumpet Faking (w/ John Miller, The Holy Dark)

The man behind The Holy Dark, John Miller is on the couch this week. He's talking about what "Gloom Folk" means to him, what it was like growing up a fraternal twin and the youngest of 7 super artistic kids from two super artistic (and also religious) parentsand the duality of them translating Rammstein lyrics to ensure they're "safe" to listen to, but sharing their love of the Beatles, the Kinks and more with the family. 

He and Jake talk about their respective experiences growing up in the church and how church values weren't always "home" values, the ways music played a role in their grade and high school years and John divulges that he never learned to read music, completely faking his years through high school concert, marching and jazz bands.

John also talks openly about the trauma he faced as a child, dealing with death at a very young age including his oldest brother taking his own life. He shares the story of how he found out at 20 that for an entire year as a kid he was home-schooled because of it (though he had no recollection of it.) The two also discuss medication and John talks about sneaking to a doctor behind his parents backs who wanted him to seek aid from a pastor instead, and being prescribed anti-depressants that he would be banned from taking when they found out, leaving him to self medicate.

All that, more, AND a track from The Holy Dark called "Poison Oak"

Find John and the Holy Dark at www.theholydarkband.com 

032 Five First Names (w/ Chad Philip Peter)

Chad Philip Peter is a filmaker, writer and post production mogul who's work you've seen in tv shows like Mr. Robot and Mindhunter and in films like Birdman and The Revenant.
He's also the son of an alpha fighter pilot father and a junking mother. Lucky for us he's on the couch this week talking about moving a bunch as a kid including a short stint in Japan, his father taking him to see Running Man as his first movie and how Alien 3 was the only Alien movie. He also shares how a comic book shop opening up in his small town of Evergreen, Colorado helped him find the little corner of the world he felt at most home and how that led to publishing his own comic.

There's also Natalie Portman message boards, short films, shared schools with Trey Parker, his town being in South Park, being publicly bipartisan, making offers people can't refuse as a means to a foot in the door and some talk about his first independent feature film, "Apocalypse, CA."

All in all he and Jake find they had some similar life plot points in their respective coming of age movies.

Constable Of Cuteness

Jake recalls how his trusty companion, Cosmosis Jones came into his life at the most perfect time in the most imperfect and random way.

031 Seize Dis Ease (w/ Damian Washington

Actor, Rapper and self-proclaimed Nerd, Damian Washington joins Jake this week and the two recall the day they met & Damian's job of tackling the six time world champion Chris Jericho on Comedy Central's "Nothing To Report."

Damian shares some of his experience growing up in Harlem, having hood stripes and how people that don't actually wear them romanticise them. He talks about his neighborhood watch-woman grandmother who kept an eye on him and the block, the father he met for the first time when he was 30, the struggle in reconnecting, growing up fatherless and how family norms strongly differ between his inner city black community and Jake's suburban white one, despite some personal similarities.

There's also performing arts high schools, sexual theater analogies, Captain Crunch commercials, the ancient chinese art of Qigong, and influencial co-stars before Damian also speaks transparently and emotionaly about living (and vlogging) with Auto Immune Disease and Multiple Sclerosis and how publishing and sharing his treatment, struggles, ups and downs has opened doors and offered strength.

Follow Damian on Twitter @DeeDubs57

030 The Committal Rascals (w/ Jordan Black)

From Groundlings to SNL to Dan Harmon's Community, Jordan Black is ever-present in the business of funny. This week he's on the couch speaking about his small town illinois upbringing idolizing The Fonz and his supportive and pro-active mother who was the only person he needed to hear "you can do it" from.

He talks about his suprisingly well rounded mindset at young age having a clear picture of what he wanted, how he decided as a perfectly attending class-clown freshman in high school that college simply wasn't gonna work for him, some wise words he hung onto by the great philosopher Lenny Kravitz, and about how he moved to LA before he was even 18.

He also shares his experience being a black man in the mostly white dominated world of sketch/improv, how a lot of the pushback and struggle he faces comes from a place you probably wouldn't expect and how it all led to the critically acclaimed Groundlings show he created called "The Black Version."

Follow Jordan on social media @FakeJordanBlack

029 Seven Year Plevin (w/ Brionne Davis)

Actor/Director/Producer Brionne Davis is on the couch talking his small town roots and the nugget of truth that's been burning like lava inside him ever since playing Tom Saywer as a kid in community theater in Paris TX.

He talks about how C.S. Lewis' The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe sparked an active imagination, his relationship with his quite opposite older brother, the outsider mindset and his childhood ADD before ADD was really a "thing."

The two also share their experiences growing up in two similar racially mixed public schools in what most people would consider two vastly differently parts of the country, before having an open and frank discussion about racism, acceptace, and thier experiences growing up on the privleged side of the skin color spectrum. They discuss how something happens in the formative teenage years that triggers a shift in the social consciousness, and how our tribe mentality lends itself to the rebelious nature of teens as well as some of the guilt they feel for adolescent transgressions.

Brionne also speaks to his desire for a world that embraces culture and finds itself in other peoples' history opposed to alienating it. And how his roll in the Academy Award Nominated film "Embrace of the Serpent" helped him do exactly that.

Be sure to check out Embrace of the Serpent on Amazon, iTunes or Vudu and look out for Brionne on the brand new Hulu show Castle Rock, based on stories by Stephen King.

Follow Brionne on social media @BrionneDavis

028 Shifting Feelings Dealings (w/ Krista Allen)

Actress, Comedian & Podcast Host Krista Allen is on the couch this week for an amazingly transparent, enlightened, beatifully introspective and self-aware journey through her at times tragic experience finding her voice, LITERALLY. 

With a con-man father and a narcissistic, Beach Boy groupie mother (no seriously), she discusses how the difficult hand she was dealt led to some massive insecurities, both anger and "daddy issues," an unhealthy career victim mentality, eating disorders, love addiction and more. From constantly moving around and seeking safe haven, being inable to express her feelings, leaving school young, surviving sexual abuse and more, she has a truly incredible perspective on her own story and her outlook on both her past and her future is inspiring and lovely.

She talks about alignment and he talks about balance. And thats all just the first half. This a dont-miss whirlwind of a conversation.

There's also a 5 foot 6 persian cage-fighting rapper in there somewhere.

Follow Krista @KristaAllenXO

Far Too Late

In the aftermath of the largest mass shooting in modern american history, I took a moment to express my sadness, disgust and rage over the 58 lives lost.               -Jake