In this episode:

• the Mayan apocalypse of 2012,
• infamous medieval fortune teller Nostradamus,
• 1980′s house keeper sitcoms (Benson, Mr. Belvedere, Charles in Charge, Who’s the Boss?),
• “Ranger Joe” Dave Coulier from Full House,
• 50th anniversary reunion tour of The Beach Boys,
• Politically Incorrect skit starring Louie Anderson as Newt Gingrich and Bill Maher as “The Godfather”,
• Bored to Death gets canceled,
• Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison (2010),
• William Campbell,
• Paul McCartney’s 2012 album Kisses on the Bottom of 1930′s era songs,
• Keith Richards fighting off a fan on stage with his guitar,
• Give My Regards to Broadstreet on the Commodore 64,
• Robin Williams naming his children after video game characters,
• CCG (collectible card game) stores and players,
• Giant board games (Axis and Allies, X-Men Under Siege),
• Twitter follower @spacemandavid to be known as Mrs. Paunch Stevenson,
• donate to Eliza Dushku’s Tharce-Gulu charity,
• and DC Comics’ new, dumb logo.

Download this episode:
58 minute MP3 file – 26.8 MB (right-click to save)

Listen to this episode:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Happy New Year!!

In this episode:

• a sing off: Eliza Dushku’s “Freedom” vs. Paul McCartney’s “Freedom”,
• Yoko Ono ruining the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus performances,
• John Lennon in The Dirty Mac with Eric Clapton, Mitch Mitchell, and Keith Richards,
• Rob’s genius idea #1 (bomb scare to cancel a sports game),
• Jean-Claude Van Damme playing hockey in Sudden Death (1995),
• Rob’s genius idea #2 (everybody gets a free crime to commit),
• Tom Cruise hires people to be his fans in India,
• Tom Hanks posting pictures of his injured thumb on Twitter,
• our new Paunch Twitter account,
• Alec Baldwin gets thrown off a plane and makes fun of it on Saturday Night Live,
• the trailer for the upcoming movie The Three Stooges (2012),
• a remake of Gilligan’s Island starring the cast of Curb Your Enthusiasm,
• Unabomber Ted Kasinsky being tortured with CIA mind control,
• more incompetent bus drivers,
• What Ever Happened To? (comedian Bob Nelson),
• the new Modern Warfare video game making $4 billion in its first few days of sales,
• Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake suing Hogan’s ex-wife,
• Miyamoto not retiring from Nintendo,
• our Lame Idiot of the Year award goes to Charlie Sheen,
• and the runner up is Kim Kardashian.

Here’s our take on the Curb Your Enthusiasm cast starring in a new Gilligan’s Island!

Download this episode:
67 minute MP3 file – 30.8 MB (right-click to save)

Listen to this episode:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Charlie Sheen is the winner of The Paunch Stevenson Show Lame Idiot of 2011 Award.

Last October, Charlie Sheen was busted for trashing a swank hotel room at New York’s Plaza Hotel, admitting to using drugs and having a hooker over. In the face of controversy, Sheen admitted himself to his third attempt at “home rehab.” With CBS growing anxious, they decided to halt production on his hit show Two and a Half Men, which infuriated Sheen. He took to the airwaves and the internet, blasted the studio, the network, and the show’s creator Chuck Lorre, and refusing to come back to work without a 50% raise. Eventually Sheen was fired, losing his $1.8 million dollar an episode salary.

Shortly after being fired, child services removed his toddler children from his house, where Sheen lived with former porn stars. His ex-wife Brooke Mueller, gets into worse trouble than Charlie. Sheen became an internet sensation, but tweeting nonsensical things like “Duh, winning”, “Tiger Blood”, and “Warlock.” He would repeat these things in prime time interviews, including a bizarre night on Pierce Morgan’s show, in which Charlie was clearly wasted. Sheen attempted multiple comebacks by hosting web cam shows, where he spewed more craziness, and a video on Funny or Die.com where he cooked food mixed with cigarettes.

Lastly, Charlie attempted a comedy/improv tour, but he was booed off the stage in Chicago and Detroit, and quit shortly thereafter. He also claimed to be starring in a new movie, Major League 3, even though that film was already produced over 10 years ago with Scott Bakula. Somehow, Sheen, like Keith Richards, has managed not to kill himself, so we expect he’ll eventually return to film and TV. Where’s Hot Shots part Twee?

Happy holidays!!

In this episode:

• our movie review of 12 Dates of Christmas (2011) starring Amy Smart and Mark-Paul Gosselaar,
• the fact that it completely ripped off Groundhog Day (1993) starring Bill Murray,
• Greg fist bumping Eliza Dushku’s giant ring,
• Greg meeting Bill Maher at his book signing for The New New Rules,
• people not sharing their photos and videos from book signings,
• our movie review of D.C. Cab (1983) starring Bill Maher, Gary Busey, and Mr. T,
• Hasbro’s KRE-O and Kreon Transformers,
• Greg meeting Regis Philbin at Bookends for his book How I Got This Way,
• the complete series of Jem on DVD for the first time (released by Shout! Factory),
• fanboys pestering Shout! Factory DVD producer Brian Ward about film transfer quality,
• Shout! Factory’s Sunbow animated DVDs vs. Rhino’s past DVD releases,
• ruining old TV shows by creating fake Dolby 5.1 surround sound audio,
• the upcoming movie G.I. Joe Retaliation (2012) starring Bruce Willis, The Rock, and Channing Tatum,
• former WWOR channel 9 weatherman Lloyd Lindsay Young and his crazy antics,
• and a celebrity death (comedian Patrice O’Neal).

“Poster” for 12 Dates of Christmas ripping off Groundhog Day…	Eliza Dushku’s massive ring…
Greg with Bill Maher in the background…	Video of Bill Maher’s signing, can you spot Greg at about 2:35?

Download this episode:
55 minute MP3 file – 25.1 MB (right-click to save)

Listen to this episode:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Sixth anniversary of the Paunch Stevenson Show (Part II)!

In this episode:

• election lawn signs for Stallone and Hogan in Northern NJ,
• Conrad Murray trial verdict in death of Michael Jackson,
• more NJ pizzeria stereotypes,
• get rich quick (the classy pizzeria),
• celebrity death (Smokin’ Joe Frazier),
• What Ever Happened To? (Judge Mills Lane and Fairuza Balk),
• Adam Sandler cursing his female co-stars’ careers,
• Greg meets the legendary William Shatner,
• anecdotes from his new book Shatner Rules,
• the movie Incubus (1966) spoken entirely in Esperanto,
• In Living Color returning to Fox in 2012,
• another celebrity death (Heavy D),
• Johnny English Reborn (2011) starring Rowan Atkinson,
• Rob’s fundamental categories of video games (fun, strategy, and wonder),
• why can’t a one-person bathroom be unisex?,
• the Paunch luck (we missed a chance to meet Stan Lee),
• cheap 1980s Halloween costumes for children (Voltron, E.T., etc.),
• super expensive price for Mark Hamill’s autograph or photo,
• Greg meets the star of Hercules (Kevin Sorbo),
• Greg meets Eliza Dushku at last!,
• a motion ride using George Lucas’ Red Tails,
• movie cars (1966 Batmobile, 1989 Batmobile, 1985 Back to the Future DeLorean),
• Michael J. Fox impersonator,
• Carroll Spinney, original voice and puppeteer of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch,
• New York Comic Con chaos and costumes,
• KRE-O Transformers,
• R2D2Builder.com R2-D2 working models,
• tracking down a Quiznos restaurant,
• Michael Jackson’s stoned singing,
• and the return of the Hobo!

Flickr Album – New York Comic Con, NYC 10/16/11

Flickr Album – William Shatner book signing, NYC 10/6/11

Download this episode:
83 minute MP3 file – 38.1 MB (right-click to save)

Listen to this episode:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Celebrating 6 Years of the Paunch Stevenson Show (Part I)!

In this episode:

• Sylvester Stallone’s $5,000 Montegrappa Chaos pen,
• American cheese,
• chain letters,
• the Joke Society of America,
• how Greg and Rob met 25 years ago,
• middle school madness,
• celebrity deaths (Steve Jobs, creator of Apple, and Dennis Ritchie, creator of Unix),
• Steve Jobs’ many idiosyncracies,
• TNT’s Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) tv movie,
• Steve Jobs, the biography by Walter Isaacson,
• Pixar and the “violent Toy Story cut”,
• Adobe Flash fails on mobile devices,
• other celebrity deaths (Andy Rooney, Al Davis),
• Steven Tyler falls again, loses a tooth,
• John Lennon’s tooth sold for $31,000 dollars,
• cloning the Beatles,
• Chris Tucker goes bankrupt,
• Paunch luck (Rob misses the Ghostbusters theater re-release),
• losing power in the freak October snow storm,
• Greg meets Jerry O’Connell at the Live with Regis and Kelly show in NYC,
• Bill Cosby gets flashed by a topless woman in New York,
• and Greg meets John Lithgow at Barnes and Noble in Princeton, NJ.

Video of John Lithgow at the book signing…

Flickr Album – Greg meets John Lithgow, Princeton, NJ 10/12/11

Flickr Album – Jerry O’Connell on the Live with Regis and Kelly show, NYC 10/13/11

Download this episode:
77.5 minute MP3 file – 35.7 MB (right-click to save)

Listen to this episode:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

In this episode:

• Paunch luck (East Coast Earthquake, Hurricane Irene, London Riots),
• Recapping Rob’s first trip to England,
• London sights (Abbey Road, London Underground, London Eye Ferris Wheel, and Big Ben),
• English cuisine, accents, and weather,
• Rob playing drums on Beatles songs at the Liverpool Cavern Club,
• lousy British reality television,
• The Love We Make (2011) documentary, starring Paul McCartney,
• “Rockestra 2″ (the remake video),
• murals painted on pizzeria walls of Marlon Brando,
• Danny Aiello,
• Conrad Murray’s trial,
• drunk Michael Jackson recording,
• Marquis Who’s Who in America books,
• Amazon Kindle Fire tablet,
• our review of Curb Your Enthusiasm season 8,
• our review of the book Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good: Larry David and the Making of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, by Josh Levine,
• Larry David on the old ABC show Fridays,
• and the first Curb Your Enthusiam special.

Download this episode:
92 minute MP3 file – 42.1 MB (right-click to save)

Listen to this episode:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

In this episode:

• Family Guy episodes with Frank Welker playing Megatron,
• were the lack of color and overuse of generic characters money saving tricks by Sunbow after Transformers: The Movie?,
• the newly released Star Wars The Complete Saga on Blu Ray disc,
• extras (good description here), changes, “Han shoots first” debacle, and the history of Star Wars home video releases,
• Steven Spielberg’s impersonation of George Lucas,
• communicating as kids before the Internet and cell phone age,
• annoying kids who came to our doors unannounced and unwelcome,
• Leonard Nimoy almost eaten by a bear,
• another “Jesse Ventura Conspiracy” (who really designed Manhattan Island’s grid system?),
• Casey Jones (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) fan film, directed by Polaris Banks (starring Hilarion Banks as Casey and Robbie Rist as Michelangelo),
• and Eddy Grant’s Romancing The Stone movie theme song.

Download this episode:
54 minute MP3 file – 25 MB (right-click to save)

Listen to this episode:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Our interview with Ed Daly, NJ author of the 2011 book Cereal: Snap, Crackle, Pop Culture!

In this episode:

• Rob waking up from his trance,
• supermarkets carrying more than 90 different breakfast cereals,
• Ed’s reasons for writing his book,
• his favorite cereals (General Mills Rice Chex and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Kellogg’s Special K, etc.),
• his least favorite cereals (Kellogg’s Hannah Montana and All-Bran)
• TV show and movie tie-ins,
• the lack of prizes in cereal boxes today,
• Kellogg’s Mueslix and the Eddie Murphy movie Meet Dave (2008),
• Ed’s opinion of Quaker Cap’n Crunch and various peanut butter flavored cereals,
• crunchy marshmallows in cereal,
• cereal box artwork, characters, and commercials,
• sugary cereals marketed as being healthy,
• Post Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles melting in milk,
• cereal restaurants and Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts World in Times Square NYC,
• Ed’s milk-to-cereal ratio,
• his next pop culture project,
• and how much (or little) money an author makes from a book like this.

Buy Cereal: Snap, Crackle, Pop Culture on Amazon or Barnes and Noble
Follow Ed Daly on Twitter: twitter.com/ezeddaly
Visit Ed’s web site: cerealsnapcracklepopculture.tumblr.com

Download this episode:
35 minute MP3 file – 16 MB (right-click to save)

Listen to this episode:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Pee-wee’s Playhouse, we present our interview with NJ author Caseen Gaines, writer of the first book about Pee-wee Herman, Inside Pee-wee’s Playhouse: The Untold, Unauthorized, and Unpredictable Story of a Pop Phenomenon!

In this episode:

• why Caseen wrote this book,
• thoughts about Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) and Big Top Pee-wee (1988),
• the appeal of the TV show to college students,
• the longevity of Pee-wee’s Playhouse,
• obtaining interviews for the book using the internet,
• tons of unique never-before-seen pictures,
• the Christmas special,
• the life-size Chairry toy and 40 inch Pee-wee doll,
• Lynne Stewart “Miss Yvonne” appearing on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,
• the 2010-2011 Pee-wee Herman live stage show,
• a future Pee-wee movie with Judd Apatow and Paul Rust,
• what if there had been a Pee-wee video game back in the 1980s?,
• the infamous theater incident in Florida,
• and the legacy of Pee-wee Herman.

Pre-order the book from Amazon or Barnes & Noble
Follow Caseen on Facebook @ www.facebook.com/caseengaines
Check out www.insidetheplayhouse.com for info on the book, and for in-person appearances like these:

• Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art with animators and artists, possibly cast members, of the Playhouse show, in New York, October 27,
• Chiller Theatre in Parsippany, NJ, October 28-30,
• and Starbucks in Little Ferry, NJ, November 8.

Download this episode:
65 minute MP3 file – 30.0 MB (right-click to save)

Listen to this episode:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.