We continue our journey into The Sound of Young America's vast audio archive with this program from The Sound of Young America Clasics.

Then we talk with Chris Elliott, long-time foil to David Letterman, co-creator and star of the cult sitcom Get A Life, and now comic novelist. His first novel was "The Shroud of the Thwacker."

Finally, we talk with Matt Walsh. In addition to appearing in many movies, Walsh is a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade. He also starred in the semi-improvised semi-reality sitcom Dog Bites Man.

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In case you haven't noticed on our Live page, The Sound of Young America is proud to be sponsoring two monthly live shows in New York City.

The first is Variety SHAC at the UCB Theater. Shonali Bhowmik, Heather Lawless, Andrea Rosen and Chelsea Perretti are four of the funniest women in New York, and each month they present a pastiche of standup, short film and music. I've seen the show here in LA, and it's fantastic.

The next SHAC is Thursday night at 9:30, and features Jon Glaser (Conan, Human Giant, etc) and Greg Johnson. That's a lot of entertainment for just five buckaroos.

The second is Rock & ROFL, a combination comedy/rock show that's put together by Klaus Kinski and Brooklyn Vegan. Comedy runs from 9-10, then a couple of bands rock your ass off. This month's show is Monday, May 5th at Piano's in NYC. Among the comics making you ROFL will be John Mulaney, who I was lucky enough to see at the Project Breakout show at Comix last year -- and he knocked me out. You can also see The Acorn and War on Drugs, two very highly-regarded rock bands. And it's ten bucks! You can't lose!

But wait... what if it got EVEN BETTER?

We've got two pairs of tickets for Rock & ROFL to GIVE AWAY to two lucky Max Funsters. Just email me your name and contact info, plus your favorite TSOYA interview. That's it! I'll pick two winners tommorow.

I'm looking forward to the launch of a brand-new public radio morning show tommorow, "The Takeaway," with John Hockenberry and Adoara Udoji.

"The Takeaway" is a co-production of PRI (my distributor), the BBC, WNYC in New York, the New York Times and WGBH in Boston. The goal is, at it's essence, to provide an alternative to Morning Edition, which is something that I think is desperately needed in public radio. (And to be clear: I like Morning Edition).

When I attended my first public radio conference six months or so ago in Minneapolis, I was really wowed by Hockenberry's brief talk about how he imagined the show. Expect a program that at least aspires to be truly multi-platform, and focused on the in-depth and analysis, which is exactly what I think public radio does better than any other broadcast outlet.

You can hear the show on WNYC (both AM and FM at different times), on WEAA in Baltimore, and on WGBH in Boston. You can also hear it online at thetakeaway.org. There's already a sample up at PRI's site.

Now, just to make this a bit more Maximum Fun-like, I will say that while I was at the conference, I saw Udoji at Saks Off 5th in downtown Minneapolis. I was looking at shirts, and she asked me what shirt size I wore. I told her (16.5x35, if you're wondering), then told her how much I enjoyed their presentation earlier that day.

"How did you..." she started, confusedly. "OH! You don't work here!"

Yes, PRI's new flagship star thought I worked at Saks' discount store.

Sloane Crosley started her non-fiction writing career after an acquaintance offered to publish a cleaned-up version of a mass email she'd sent... in the Village Voice. Her collection of humorous personal essays, "I Was Told There'd Be Cake," recently debuted on the New York Times bestseller list.

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If you enjoyed this show, try these ones:
Dan Kennedy
Jeffrey Blitz
Miranda July

Brooklyn Vegan has posted some awesome pics of the BV & KK Present Rock & ROFL show that we sponsored last night at Piano's in NYC. Looks like it was awesome!

The surprise guest was John Vanderslice, who was a guest on TSOYA in 2006. What an awesome guy.

Above is a shot of our man Will Franken, who's repping Kansas and the Bay in Queens these days. You can find more awesome photos of Vanderslice, the comedy cats and Takka Takka by Ryan Muir over at BV.

And if you missed this show, be sure not to miss our next TSOYA Presents show, Variety SHAC at the UCBT Thursday night... not to mention Will Franken at the Purple Onion in SF on Friday and Saturday.

Ken Freedman and Andy Breckman are the hosts of Seven Second Delay on WFMU, the legendary freeform radio station in Jersey City, New Jersey. For the past fifteen years, they've picked a "radio stunt" each week, then tried to execute it in just one hour of live airtime. They've chain-translated a Village Voice S&M personal add through 15 languages, then back into English, written the ultimate New York Times "Metropolitan Diary" column entry, then gotten it published, and failed more times than they can count.

When they're not on-air, Freedman serves as the station's manager. Breckman is a noted comedy writer, having written for David Letterman and Saturday Night Live (he penned the classic "White Like Me" sketch), and he is creator and showrunner of USA network's Monk.

The folks behind the Seven Second Delay blog have put together this guide to the show for listeners of TSOYA, including links to the various programs referenced during our interview. Thanks!

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If you enjoyed this show, try these ones:
Tom Scharpling and Jon Wurster
Ira Glass
Paul F. Tompkins

The always-awesome Dave Hill is looking for love in all the wrong places this Valentine's day.

Our very good friends The Kasper Hauser Comedy Group are bringing their brilliant, off-kilter eye to New York City tonight and tommorow night. Kasper Hauser coming to NYC is a big enough deal for Time Out New York to have declared it "an event of magnitude."

Tonight (Thursday), they're performing their show SkyMaul. See SkyMaul CEO Jerry Ponda detail the decline of the SkyMaul company, and meet the mis-matched characters who are hoping to bring it back to the top. Features original sketches specific to the show, plus material drawn from SkyMaul the book. The show's at 10 at Ars Nova.

Tommorow (Friday), they're co-headlining The Longest Sketch Show Ever at the UCB in NY. The show starts at 10 and runs for 24 straight hours. It's part of the New York Comedy Festival. They'll be performing lots of classic Kasper Hauser sketches in a show that's completely different from SkyMaul.

Be there or be square!

Once a year, NBC holds a standup comedy contest for comics who aren't white. It's called "Stand up for Diversity." The cool part about this contest is that the winner actually gets a holding deal at NBC -- which if I'm not mistaken is what you get for winning Last Comic Standing, too. A year or two ago, our buddy Brent Weinbach (half-filipino, half-jew) won the contest, and while he didn't get a guest show on Joey, he did make some money and contacts out of it.

The big show is tonight in New York, and it's hosted by the very funny Jordan Carlos. So if you're not already going to see Kasper Hauser, see deets below.

My interview with Mr. Stephen Colbert is up now in iTunes.

If you don't have iTunes, a commenter points out that it is available on the Apple website as a video. I should be clearer: it's audio and still pictures, not a full-motion video. But the file's in a video format.

Thanks to Apple for the photo and the amazing opportunity.