cause for years and years, they were like he’s too idiosyncratic, he’s too many odds things mixed together. I was the same way. I said, “Listen, I want to feature not just a lot of real people, who are not necessarily famous telling their real, raw stories but I want to feature a lot of musicians who are not necessarily signed to big labels. I want to take this idea of do it your self, that the Internet allows and make the most of it.” So, we’ve kept that to this day. We are in our fifth year now, and we have found it’s a real joy to continue featuring indie bands on the show. So, my iPod is mainly hundreds of the latest singles from indie bands, around the world. And when I hear something I like I reach out to a band, and say, “Hey, can we use this?” It’s so funny because I had always been warned, “Oh, that’s not going to work, you’re gonna run into problems here and there.” But, when you reach out to artists directly and just say what your art is about and how their art can fit into it, 9 times out of 10, they’re like, “I’m honored, I want to be apart of that.” That’s been a real thrill. Colleen: I actually have a radio show here in Syracuse and kind of my goal is to find at least a couple artists that no one knows about. I’m always scouring the Internet or YouTube, to find the artists. So, I love that. Kevin: It’s such an exciting era because of that, really. Of course, whenever you gain something, you lose something. So, the Internet made it harder for people to make money. You know, you’ve got be a lot more clever and work harder, cause there is so much art out there. But, on the other hand, it gave a lot of the people more freedom to do it their own way. A lot of people are making music and getting it out there who might not have had such an opportunity when they thought, “Oh we can only do this within the context of a big label.” Colleen: Something that I’ve observed, from this new kind of storytelling method is audience participation, such as audience members sending in their own stories, or being able to relate to a story like, “Oh, something like that did happen to me.” Would you say that’s a plus or positive to this storytelling method? Kevin: Oh my god, that is, I think what ultimately took the show from good to great. That somewhere in our first season, people started listening to the show and reaching out to us. Initially, I’m like “Oh, I know lots of comedians, they’ll agree to do the show.” I always knew that I wanted this show to be from all walks of life. Now, I still really struggle with that, and I’m reaching out to people all the time. Oh my gosh, is there anyway we can get more homeless people on the show, people who have been in prison, or people who have spent a lot of time in prostitution, people, you know, who have been marginalized in society. I want to hear more and more of their stories. But of course, most of the people who listen to the show are doing ok, more or less, and people started reaching out...So, it started pushing them deeper, and comedians listening to the show were like, “Oh, we’ve got to step up our game and dig a little deeper as well, because others are telling more moving stories than we are.” (laughs) But it’s great; people come to the show from all sorts of places. We seek people out and people seek us out. We hope that keeps growing. One of my dreams is to do it in a prison, kind of the way that Johnny Cash did at Folsom Prison, and have prisoners share stories among an audience of fellow prisoners. So, we want to see how we might be able to make that work. Colleen: That’s interesting! So, do you like touring and doing these live shows because you’re able to meet the fans? Kevin: Oh my god, yes. It’s very interesting, because when I come to other cities, it’s a special
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