12 MAY 2016 · The Artist’s Way is celebrating its 25th Anniversary, so it was a privilege to speak with its enchanting author Julia Cameron who democratized creativity. In our interview, Cameron talked about working with her daughter Domenica, an actor who made her directorial debut with the indie film Almost Paris, which screened as part of Tribeca Film Festival. Cameron also shared what she got out of writing fiction versus non-fiction, co-parenting with Martin Scorsese, and a musical which is in the works. She also revealed why walking your dog doesn’t count as an “Artist’s Date” and what gets her to write her “Pages,” even when she’d rather not do so.

4 MAY 2016 · Between Isaac Mizrahi’s pithy humor, remarkable insight, and insatiable desire to create and perform, he is a captivating presence. In our candid conversation, we spoke about, amongst other things, Isaac choosing not to come out to father to his tender relationship with choreographer and dancer Mark Morris and dealing with Jonathan Ames. A wunderkind, Isaac Mizrahi made his mark in fashion in the late 1980’s and 1990’s. The fashion world is notoriously competitive and volatile, even for the beloved boy wonder, whose rise was so perfectly captured in the documentary Unzipped in 1995. Soon after, Chanel pulled out financing and various ventures folded. Isaac smartly took it as an opportunity to branch out. Like the late great Joan Rivers, Mizrahi was more than resilient and restless, he was and is a creative soul with more ideas to develop. He reinvented himself again and again, be it starring in his own cabaret show, Les Mizrahi, or hosting and appearing on numerous TV shows, including Project Runway and, now, “Isaac Mizrahi Live!” on QVC. Mizrahi has also designed sumptuous costumes for countless dance and theatrical productions. The Jewish Museum is currently displaying a retrospective of the fashion Icon’s work called, “Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History.” He was always a fan of color when designing clothes, and his colorful personality and imagination are a welcome reprieve. Isaac goes great with any outfit! Enjoy our interview. To hear more, subscribe on iTunes to Employee of the Month Show’s podcast or see our season finale live, Thursday May 19th at Joe’s Pub. Catie Lazarus will interview Patti LuPone and Tituss Burgess, amongst others. For more, follow @CatieLazarus or go to www.Employeeofthemonthshow.com

27 APR 2016 · Josh Gondelman is a writer for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO and has contributed to Billy Eichner’s show Billy on the Street, The New Yorker, and McSweeney’s. His second stand up special Physical Whisper is currently out and he made his stand up debut on Conan. After writing and doing stand up in small rooms in Boston, he became best known for Tweeting under the name @Seinfeld Today, aka Modern Seinfeld, with a friend Jack Moore. We spoke one-on-one about the disgusting bathrooms in comedy rooms to Gondelman’s sunny disposition and how performing in New York is simply the most challenging and splendid. @joshgondelman and @catielazarus.

20 APR 2016 · How do we nurture our art when we’ve got bills to pay and neurosis to slay? I spoke with singer, songwriter and composer Arthur Lewis about potential, success, baggage, inherited dreams, talent, and his career in music. Arthur Lewis is one of New York’s finest original musicians, which is why famed poet Sarah Kay and Pulitzer, Grammy, Tony, and MacArthur “Genius” winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, of Hamilton Fame, are fans. The two were two of the founding members of FreeStyle Love Supreme. Originally from Queens, Arthur Lewis went on to study at Yale, and then returned to New York, where he has spent over a decade playing piano, guitar, percussion, as well as composing, singing, directing, and engineering for fellow musicians, comedians, and theatrical performances. A musician’s musician, Lewis became a go-to player in musical collectives, including the Melting Pot Crew, This Is Not the Radio, and Freestyle Love Supreme, a hip hop improv group. Freestyle Love Supreme was also a foray into comedy and the group involved so many unique talents that several directors wanted to make a series chronicling these guys on stage and off. The television series about FLS features "Lin-Mon" Miranda, Hamilton's Chris "C-Jack" Jackson, Anthony "Two Touch" Veneziale, Utkarsh "UTK" Ambudkar, best known for The Mindy Project and Pitch Perfect, beatboxer Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan, Bill "King Sherman" Sherman, and, of course, Arthur "Arthur the Geniuses" Lewis. Tony winner James "J-Soul" Monroe Inglehart and Daveed Diggs, from Hamilton fame, make cameos. FLS, the TV series, is on PIVOT Channel and will be streaming on SeeSo soon. Lewis is instrumental in bands, collectives and collaborations, but it is as a solo artist where Arthur Lewis truly shines. His singular talent for seamlessly sifting between improvising on the fly, as a true jazz artist would, and braiding together original indie soul vocals and instrumental melodies are palpable in his debut album, IF WE WERE. He is also the Lead Developer at Soundfly, which uses technology to create a new kind of music school. Once you hear his ethereal voice and dulcet compositions, you'll know why this indie soul singer is beloved by his peers and fans alike. Lewis performed live at Joe’s Pub during a live taping of Employee of the Month, so after you hear our candid interview, you can enjoy his intoxicating music. www.arthurthefourth.com and follow me @catielazarus Our next live show is Thursday April 28th at Joe's Pub. Go to www.employeeofthemonthshow.com for more details.

13 APR 2016 · Justin Vivian Bond is a Tony nominated, Obie, GLAAD and Essie winning cabaret star and trans-genre artist. Vocal about being transgender, Justin uses V as a preferred prefix. The first time Bond took the stage was as a wee babe in a Christmas show at V.'s family’s local Church of the Brethren in sleepy Hagerstown, Maryland, but the rest of the word would have to wait decades before hearing from the sumptuous voice and acerbic wit which made Bond a legend. After high school and a stint as a counselor at church camp, Bond knocked around New York and studied theater, but didn’t find a niche until moving to San Francisco in 1989. Out West, Bond took a day job at A Different Light bookstore and performed in plays, most notably in Hidden A: Gender by Kate Bornstein, the renowned performance artist and gender theorist. Like Bornstein, Bond spoke shattered simplistic theories, like the idea that everyone who transgender feels trapped in the wrong body. Justin also met the musician Kenny Mellman, and the duo created Kiki & Herb, which went onto become one of the hottest cabaret acts in history. As a result, Bond became synonymous with the character Kiki Durane, a drunk, over-the -hill lounge singer, loosely based on a childhood friend’s mother. The two moved to New York and found an international audience, leading them to play Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House, and in 2006, earning a Tony nod. They are reuniting this year for the first time since 2008 at Joe’s Pub. The entire run sold out two hours after going on sale, although there will be some rush day-of tickets on sale. But Bond also broke out as a solo performer with records like Dendrophile and Silver Wells, art exhibits, a memoir, and critical role in the cult film Short Bus, signature perfume, and became a bona fide member of New York’s glitterati. You can catch Bond’s solo shows, so you can catch Angeles We Have Heard When High, MX America, and JVB and the Freudian Slippers. Once you hear our conversation, you’ll know why you want to do so.

6 APR 2016 · David Simon revolutionized television when he created THE WIRE. A veteran crime reporter for The Baltimore Sun, Simon offered audiences a rare and searing portrait of the underground drug market, while simultaneously transforming how television series are devised. Each season focused on the inner workings of the various players, be it the politicians or police or education system. Throughout the five seasons, Simon deftly revealed the interplay between government, police enforcement, addicts, dealers, politicians, prisons, media, press, religious institutions, lobbyists, public school system, gangs, business, entrepreneurs, race, class, and technology. In addition to using a cadre of fine actors, including Omar Epps, Michael B. Jordan and Idris Elba, he also offered cameos and sometimes ongoing roles to real people, be it a Health Commissioner, journalist, or former convict. The result was a gripping drama, that mesmerized everyone from President Barack Obama to drug dealers to the media. They not only became devotees of the show, but of David Simon. Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that the whistle blower Edward Snowden is a fan of The Wire. But when Snowden decided to take this fictionalized television show and use it as an example of how meta-data is collected on Twitter, he didn't realize David Simon would respond IRL. Both passionate and knowledgeable critics on the issue of national security, the two embarked on a debate about whether the government is overstepping in how, why, when, where it collects meta-data. They managed to debate civil liberties, national security, terrorism, burner phones, crime in 140 words on Twitter one Sunday, while Simon was in Baltimore, Maryland, and Snowden was in Russia. Simon reflected on this fascinating, utterly uncensored Twitter exchange in his conversation with Catie Lazarus, which was recorded live at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater. For those who wonder how David Simon got his start, well he wouldn’t have looked like a shoe-in for a MacArthur “Genius” Grant when he was failing out of college. Nor did he know he’d leave journalism after he wrote the books THE CORNER and HOMICIDE, or even after he’d dipped his toes writing for the television series HOMICIDE. We spoke about how the late great actor and comedian Robin Williams ensured the episode Simon wrote, got on the air. Since the success of HOMICIDE, THE CORNER, and, of course, THE WIRE, Simon has chosen to step outside of his adopted hometown of Baltimore, although he has stayed loyal to HBO, with series like GENERATION KILL, TREME, SHOW ME A HERO, and is currently in production on THE DEUCE. Luckily, he had enough time to sneak in a jam session with the Employee of the Month house band before heading to meet with an actor. All in a day’s work.

18 JAN 2013 · We promise to share with you a clip from David Wain's film ONCE it is ready but, for now, you can get to know David Wain a little bet better. He is the director and co-writer of Wet Hot American Summer, The Ten, Role Models, Wanderlust and coming this year, They Came Together, starring Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler. He also serves as executive producer, writer, director and occasional guest star of Childrens Hospital. He also co-created and co-starred in The State on MTV and Stella on Comedy Central. His newest series Newsreaders is premiering on Adult Swim this season. www.davidwain.com CATIE LAZARUS is a writer and host of THE EMPLOYEE of the MONTH SHOW, and you can follow her on Twitter @catielazarus and www.employeeofthemonthshow.com.

6 JAN 2013 · Gregory García created the critically acclaimed Fox series RAISING HOPE, the Emmy Award-winning NBC series MY NAME IS EARL, and CBS's long-running YES DEAR. Before becoming a major show runner, he also worked on Family Matters and Family Guy. If you ever want to break into creating shows for network television, Garcia has set the bar. So if you can top him, MAZEL TOV. Seriously, he is a mensch. It's not a prerequisite for the job, but probably a perk for those who work with him. (I was not paid for this endorsement. I will accept cash though, if you are paying.)