George Conway, Beto O’Rourke, Devin Nunes and a Cow, and Wit with the author of WIT’S END, WHAT WIT IS, HOW IT WORKS, AND WHY WE NEED IT, James Geary and we’re just beginning. Welcome to The Halli Casser-Jayne Show and our weekly political review with Halli and veteran White House correspondent Matthew Cooper the podcast posted at Halli Casser-Jayne dot com and on all your favorite apps.

As always, Halli and Matt slice and dice the week’s political news. There’s a lot of news and a lot of questions needing answers. Beto, Bernie, Harris, Warren can any of the announced Democratic Party candidates for POTUS beat the man waiting in the wings, Joe Biden? What are we to make of Kellyanne Conway’s husband George Conway’s battle royale with Donald Trump? Why is Devin Nunes having a cow? We love palace intrigue on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show.

In our second half-hour because we all need a laugh, from New York Times best-selling author James Geary comes WIT’S END: WHAT WIT IS, HOW IT WORKS, AND WHY WE NEED IT, a whimsical book that explores every facet of wittiness—from its role in innovation, to why puns demonstrate the essence of creativity. According to Geary, wit is much more than just having a knack for snappy comebacks. It is the quick, instinctive intelligence that allows us to think, say, or do the right thing at the right time in the right place. Whether we’re talking verbal repartee, jokes, jive, through neuroscience, psychology, folk tales, spirituality, visual art, and literary history, Geary demonstrates that wit and wisdom are really the same thing.

George Conway’s war with Trump. Beto O’Rourke enters the presidential race. Devin Nunes has a cow and WIT in the age of Donald Trump…these stories and more when journalists Halli Casser-Jayne and Matthew Cooper talk politics and Halli talks with author James Geary on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Wednesday, March 20, the podcast posted at Halli Casser-Jayne dot com, and on all your favorite apps.

Joseph Bologna, actor, writer, and director known for his role in 1982’s “My Favorite Year” and for his long collaboration on stage and screen with wife Renée Taylor, has died after a three-year battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 82. This week on The Halli Casser-Jayne Podcast we visit our archives and a madcap, freewheeling, eye-opening interview with the two legends of stage and screen.

Early in their 52-year marriage, Renée Taylor and Joe Bologna had a huge fight — a fight that ultimately led to a highly autobiographical, two-person show. “I told him to get out,” Taylor recently said in an interview. “So he started packing. But then I started packing, too. He asked me why and I said, ‘If you ever leave me, I’m going with you,’” which became the title for the show.

Fifty-two years later Taylor and Bologna were one of the major power marriages in entertainment. Bologna starred in movies such as “My Favorite Year,” “Blame It on Rio,” “Chapter Two” and “Big Daddy,” and is probably best known for TV’s “Married With Children.” Taylor has appeared in “The Producers,” “Dr. Doolittle 2,” and “Alfie.” She is probably best known as Fran Drescher’s mother, Sylvia Fine, on “The Nanny” and had a recurring role on “How I Met Your Mother.”

They have written and directed for the theater. Their first play together, “Lovers and Other Strangers,” was a Broadway hit, and then became a film, earning them an Oscar nomination. Their relationship  always at the heart of their creativity. “People always ask us the secret to our relationship,” Taylor said. “We started thinking about it, and that led to this show.”

A visit to the archives of The Halli Casser-Jayne Podcast with two legends of our times, Renee Taylor and the late Joseph Bologna. The podcast posted  at Halli Casser-Jayne dot com.

Elaine May & Mike Nichols, AN EVENING WITH NICHOLS & MAY, Golden Theater, 10/8/60

Since its premiere in 1986, Emmy-winning documentary series PBS THIRTEEN’s AMERICAN MASTERS has presented hundreds of hours comprising profiles of outstanding American cultural artists. Continuing its commitment to bring excellence to the small screen, American Masters recently celebrated the career of award-winning director Mike Nichols. Produced by longtime Mike Nichols friend entertainment icon and raconteur Julian Schlossberg this is one heckuva documentary that only Schlossberg could produce. Schlossberg and Nichols weren’t friends for no reason. They shared a unique friendship based on a unique way of looking at the world. Julian Schlossberg joins Halli for at her table to talk about the documentary, Mike Nichols and Elaine May and oh, so much more on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show.

Everyone knows who Mike Nichols was. From the beginning of his career as part of the satiric duo Nichols and May, he moved on to become one of the Twentieth Century’s legendary, award-winning directors of stage and screen. But Schlossberg is himself a legend. Shows produced by Schlossberg have earned many honors, including six Tony Awards, two Obie Awards, seven Drama Desk Awards and five Outer Critics Circle Awards. His work in film is equally notable. He is the founder of major film production and distribution companies, a well-known music label and for years was the host of the beloved, nationally syndicated radio program MOVIE TALK.

A conversation with Julian Schlossberg, raconteur and producer of the American Master’s documentary NICHOLS, directed by Elaine May on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show. For more information visit Halli Casser-Jayne dot com.

Life begins when you can laugh at yourself, and two women who are laughing at themselves, and will make you convulse with laughter, too, join Halli at her table on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Wednesday, June 3, 3 pm ET: Writer, actress and radio personality Sandra Tsing Loh, and actress, comedienne, writer Annabelle Gurwitch.

Sandra Tsing Loh is a contributing editor to The Atlantic, host of the syndicated radio show The Loh Down on Science, and has also been a regular commentator on NPR’s Morning Edition, PRI’s This American Life, and other public radio programs. She has performed two solo shows off-Broadway and she is the author of five previous books, including her 2008 memoir MOTHER ON FIRE. Her latest book is THE MADWOMAN IN THE VOLVO, MY YEAR OF RAGING HORMONES, truly a laugh-out-loud tale of a tumultuous journey through midlife that defines a generation.

Annabelle Gurwitch is the author of YOU SAY TOMATO, I SAY SHUT UP now a play receiving its third national tour, and FIRED! which became an acclaimed documentary and Showtime comedy special. She gained a loyal comedic following during her years hosting Dinner and a Movie on TBS and has been a regular commentator on NPR and contributor to The Nation, More, Glamour, Marie Claire and a number of other national publications. Her acting credits include over fifty guest roles in shows including Seinfeld and Boston Legal. And then Annabelle turned 50, became a statistic, one of the many Americans who every seven and a half seconds reaches the milestone, the subject of her book I SEE YOU MADE AN EFFORT, COMPLIMENTS, INDIGNITIES, AND SURVIVAL STORIES FROM THE EDGE OF 50.

Humor, mid-life crisis, raging hormones, women on fire… a laugh-a-thon with funny ladies Sandra Tsing Loh and Annabelle Gurwitch, Wednesday, June 3, 3 pm ET on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show. For more information visit Halli Casser-Jayne dot com.

You might not know his name, but you’ve seen his face a thousand times on both the big and small screen because Stephen Tobolowsky is one of America’s most prolific Hollywood character actors. But you will recognize the voice of some of your favorite characters, and the storyteller behind the popular podcast “The Tobolowsky Files” when Mr. Tobolowsky joins Halli at her table on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Wednesday, February 11 3 pm ET.

Stephen Tobolowsky is everywhere, having appeared in productions that range from TV’s Californication, Glee and The Goldbergs, and on the big screen in such celebrated films as Mississippi Burning, Thelma and Louise, Basic Instinct and Ground Hog Day in the part of the annoying but endearing insurance salesman Ned Ryerson, playing annoying characters his trademark.

And still Tobolowsky is so much more. As a dazzling storyteller and writer, he has earned a devoted fan base for his original stories recorded in the popular podcast: The Tobowlowsky Files. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for the 2002 revival of Morning’s at Seven. He is the author of THE DANGEROUS ANIMAL CLUB, the book billed as a “creative mitzvah, a work of art, and a narrative feat that combines biography and essay.” But that’s not all. In March he will be joining the cast of Comedy Central’s new series Big Time in Hollywood Florida, executive produced by Ben Stiller.

Actor, writer, podcaster, director, producer Stephen Tobolowsky, the guest for the hour on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show. Let’s talk Wednesday, February 11, 3 pm ET. For more information visit Halli Casser-Jayne dot com.

It’s sugar and spice and everything Dave Barry Wednesday, December 24, 2014, 3 pm ET when The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Talk Radio for Fine Minds welcomes the humorist to Halli’s table for a conversation that we promise you will bring you everything nice.
Does Dave Barry really need an introduction? Dave Barry is the Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author and columnist, who wrote a nationally syndicated humor column for The Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005. He has also written more than 30 books, including novels and non-fiction, his most recent bestsellers include INSANE CITY and I’LL MATURE WHEN I’m DEAD. Two of Barry’s books became the basis for the CBS sitcom Dave’s World.

Dave Barry is the gift that keeps on giving. The humorist is out with yet another hysterically funny book, a gem that will keep you laughing uproariously: YOU CAN DATE BOYS WHEN YOU’RE FORTY, which he bills as Dave Barry on parenting and other topics he knows very little about. Oh, boy, here we go…

Join us Wednesday, December 24, 2014, 3 pm ET for Dave Barry: A Conversation on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Talk Radio for Funny Minds. For more information visit Halli Casser-Jayne dot com.