MaxFunCon

Graham Clark and Dave Shumka, from Stop Podcasting Yourself, will be joining us for MaxFunCon 2011! If you don't listen to their delightful and hilarious podcast already, know that you should. Here's a great episode featuring comedian Paul F. Tompkins that illustrates why Graham, Dave, and Dave's dog Grandpa are awesome.

Be sure to subscribe to the MaxFunCon Podcast for even more fun.

The Upright Citizens Brigade will be performing their signature improv show, Asssscat, at MaxFunCon 2011. The Upright Citizens Brigade (Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh) came to New York, from Chicago, in 1996. After staging their award winning sketch comedy show, and introducing the long form improvised structure of the "Harold" to New York audiences the UCB soon began their training program. UCB has fostered and showcased some of the best comedy talent in the country, who have gone on to be performers and writers for Saturday Night Live, The Office, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, 30 Rock, Best Week Ever, Old School, Blades of Glory, Semi-Pro and countless other films, commercials and television shows.

Labels: Entertainment 2011

During four consecutive months in 2009, Jessica Kallam set out to increase interest in hand embroidery by hosting a weekly pop culture quiz on Facebook and Twitter called the JKGiveaway. Its winners received embroidered pieces by Jessica relating to the weekly topics, which ranged from Feist's "The Reminder" album cover to those creepy twins in "The Shining." It was a grueling challenge she will neither repeat nor in good conscience recommend. Jess' work has been featured on needlecraft and creativity blogs like Mrxstitch.com, Craftster.com and Feelingstitchy.com. Her embroidery has garnered the praise of Craftzine.com bloggers Jenny Ryan and Rachel Barry Hobson, as well as her personal embroidery deity, Sublime Stitching's own Jenny Hart. Recently Jessica has branched out to other mediums, creating jewelry, plush toys, even lighting fixtures, and she's taught sewing and crafts since 2010. This will be her second MaxFunCon, and she looks forward to teaching one of her newer skills, needlefelting. When not busy crafting, Jessica (secretly a conservatory-trained jazz singer) records stupid love duet parodies with her fiance in their greater-Los Angeles home.

Labels: Education 2011

Pendleton Ward is an animator, producer, and creator of the Cartoon Network’s ‘Adventure Time’. He has worked on cartoons such as ‘The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack’ (2008), and executive produced ‘Secret Mountain Fort Awesome’, the short which won several festival awards, and was nominated for an Annie Award for Best Short in 2008. Pendleton will present an animation workshop on Saturday at MaxFunCon.

Labels: Education 2011

Charles W. (Chuck) Bryant co-hosts the “Stuff You Should Know” podcast along with his trusty sidekick, Josh Clark. He hooked up with HowStuffWorks.com shortly after co-host Josh was hired, and the pair bonded immediately over their love of Hunter S. Thompson, the fight-or-flight response and dive bars. In his off-time, Chuck enjoys hanging out with his wife, cooking and playing in his old-man band. He loves his neti pot and hates cold bathroom floors. Chuck will be co-hostin the pub quiz on Saturday night at MaxFunCon.

Labels: Entertainment 2011

Jackie Kashian has a half-hour special on Comedy Central and has appeared on CBS, NBC, and the nationally syndicated Radio/TV show Bob And Tom. She has been a national touring comic for over 14 years and has performed at the HBO Comedy Arts Festival, the Bumbershoot Arts Festival in Seattle, Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal and has toured Australia for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow. This year she travelled to Kuwait and Iraq and performed for the troops. She will be co-presenting the stand-up comedy open mic with Maria Bamford on Saturday at MaxFunCon.

Labels: Education 2011

Jordan Morris is an actor, writer, television and podcast personality based in Los Angeles. He's seen regularly on Fuel TV's The Daily Habit, and heard weekly on the award-winning podcast Jordan, Jesse GO!. He's also an experienced improviser, and an improv instructor, certified by The Upright Citizens' Brigade Theater in Los Angeles. Morris will be sharing his improv expertise for both experienced improvisers, and those who've never improvised before.

Jesse Thorn, America’s Radio Sweetheart, is host of NPR distributed The Sound of Young America, director of MaximumFun.org, co-host of JJG!, and presenter of Judge John Hodgman. He will be EVERYWHERE at MaxFunCon.

Labels: Education 2011, Entertainment 2011

Which comedian did Judd Apatow tell the L.A. Times he thinks is hysterically funny? What entertainer starred in Target’s Black Friday ad campaign two years in a row? Whose cult hit web series is being displayed at the Museum of Art and Design in New York? Which comic’s CD was named one of the best comedy albums of the year by Amazon.com and one of the best comedy albums of the decade by The AV Club? Maria Bamford! That’s Who! Maria is running a stand-up comedy open mic and workshop on Saturday at MaxFunCon.

Labels: Education 2011

Brooke Gladstone is the host and managing editor of NPR’s ‘On The Media’. Brooke started out in print journalism, writing on defense policy, strip-mining, broadcasting and cable TV. Her freelance pieces (on topics ranging from orgasmic Russian faith healers to the aesthetics of Pampers to NPR's near fiscal crash) have appeared in the London Observer, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, and The American Journalism Review among others. She also covered public broadcasting for Current, wrote and edited theater, film and music reviews for The Washington Weekly.

Labels: Education 2011

Andy Richter is an actor, writer, comedian, and late night talk show announcer. He is best known for his role as the sidekick of Conan O'Brien on each of the host's programs: Late Night and The Tonight Show on NBC, and Conan on TBS. He is also know for his voice work in the Madagascar films and for starring in the sitcoms Quintuplets, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and Andy Barker, P.I.. Andy will be performing as a monologuist in UCB's 'Asssscat'.

Labels: Entertainment 2011

Lee Unkrich is a director and film editor. He is a longtime member of the creative team at Pixar, where he started in 1994 as a film editor. He later began directing, first as co-director of Toy Story 2. After co-directing Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo, Unkrich made his solo directorial debut with Toy Story 3, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2011. Lee will be presenting at MaxFunCon on Saturday afternoon.

Labels: Education 2011

Benjamin Harrison is a music video director and Director of Visual Messaging at Double 7 Images. As they explain, they started with a screenplay, "that everybody loved, but no one wanted to finance. So, we wrote a check on our own account called “creative hustle”, designed proposals and newsletters…produced marketing videos and live events…and birthed a few gray hairs in our relentless pursuit to secure $500K for our first project." They now share their experience with grassroots marketing and messaging. Benjamin will be running a workshop on Saturday morning at MaxFunCon.

Labels: Education 2011

Against all reasonable judgment, Neal Pollack live in Los Angeles, with his wife Regina Allen, their son Elijah, and their Boston Terriers, Hercules and Shaq. Neal is an author, editor, and yoga dude. He is author of bestselling Alterndad, The Neal Pollack Anthology Of American Literature, amongst others, and has been a contributor to McSweeney's and a columnist for Vanity Fair and Nerve.com. His next book, STRETCH: The Unlikely Making Of A Yoga Dude, will be published in August 2010 by Harper Perennial. The book is a comedy about Neal's journey through the bizarre and pretentious world of yoga culture, and about his gradual adoption of yoga as a way of life. It will be beloved by millions, or possibly dozens. Neal will be holding to sessions of yoga and discussion on Saturday at MaxFunCon.

Labels: Education 2011

Cooking instructor Julia Crookston will bring her unique verve to a third year of cooking instruction at MaxFunCon.

Julia Crookston began her culinary career in the Bay Area working with Joyce Goldstein at Chez Panisse Cafe in Berkeley , and at the Washington Square Bar and Grill , Stars Restaurant , and Little City Anti Pasti Bar in San Francisco. Chef Crookston was Executive Dining Room Chef for Sony Pictures , Chef/Manager of Pharmacia , and Executive Chef for Woodbury University. Most recently, she worked as Executive Chef and General Manger of Bon Appetit Management Company at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA. She also taught at the California School of Culinary Arts. She is a member of the American Culinary Federation.

Labels: Education 2011

Adam Lisagor is twitter celebrity and co-producer of podcast, 'You Look Nice Today', along with two other co-producers who all met on twitter. 'You Look Nice Today' is described as a Journal of Emotional Hygiene for Adults, a program that tackles many of the painful and hilarious issues typically encountered by persons of this awkward age.

Labels: Education 2011

John Roderick is the songwriter and singer/guitarist of The Long Winters, forming the band from a mound of clay back in 2001. As frontman of The Long Winters, John Roderick has done almost everything you can do in rock music, short of becoming rich and famous. John also considers himself a widely-respected journalist, an extensively-quoted author and philosopher, a prima ballerina, a cowboy and an astronaut. John runs writing workshops at 826 Seattle - a non-profit literacy program created by author Dave Eggers - and will be running two workshops on Saturday at MaxFunCon.

Labels: Education 2011

Kasper Hauser, a San Francisco-based comedy group, is (L to R) Dan Klein, James Reichmuth, John Reichmuth, and Rob Baedeker. They perform and produce live shows, digital content, and books. The group’s members have written for HBO digital and appeared on "Comedy Central" and "This American Life." Time Out New York said, "This quartet is one of the few comedy teams which has rightfully earned the description ‘Pythonesque’ …. The foursome’s show combines a hyperactive imagination with an inspired sense of lunacy." Kasper Hauser will be running two workshops on Saturday at MaxFunCon.

Labels: Education 2011

Glynn Washington is host of radio show 'Snap Judgment', which Ira Glass called described as, "Amazing. Like a cousin of This American Life that grew up in a wildly different neighborhood . . . ". Before creating the Snap Judgment radio show, Glynn worked as an educator, diplomat, community activist, actor, political strategist, fist-shaker, mountain-hollerer, and foot stomper. Glynn composed music for the Kunst Stoff dance performances in San Francisco, rocked live spoken word poetry in Detroit, joined a band in Indonesia, wrote several screenplays, painted a daring series of self portraits, released a blues album, and thinks his stories are best served with cocktails. Glynn will be running two workshops on Saturday at MaxFunCon.

Labels: Education 2011

British comedian Josie Long spent her early life in Orpington, South East London and began performing stand-up comedy at the ridiculously young age of 14. After graduating, she returned to live stand up with full force, supporting Stewart Lee on his Spring 2005 tour, and round that time tour she contributed sketches and one-liners to BBC Radio One's comedy show, The Milk Run. In 2006 Josie's career shifted up a gear when she won the If.comeddies Best Newcomer award at the Fringe, before launching her own monthly comedy clubs, The Sunday Night Adventure Club, at the ABC Café in Crystal Palace and The OK Club at the Boogaloo pub in Highgate, North London. Josie's 2010 show Be Honourable earnt her an Edinbugh Comedy Award nomination alongside Russell Kane (who won), Greg Davies, Bo Burnham and Sarah Millican. It was the first time two female comedians had been nominated for the award.

Labels: Entertainment 2011

Stop Podcasting Yourself is Vancouver's hilarious comedy podcast hosted by Graham Clark and Dave Shumka. Graham and Dave will be perfomring live on Sunday at MaxFunCon.

Labels: Entertainment 2011

Greg Behrendt should be known for may things. He's a brilliant lifelong comedian who accidentally became the best selling co author of the inescapable He's Just Not That Into You. He was the host of the weirdly named Greg Behrendt Show and he's the musical force behind America's instrumental surf and ska combo the Reigning Monarchs and the foremost collector of small glass pig figurines or ("pigurines"). Greg will be performing stand-up on Saturday night at MaxFunCon.

Labels: Entertainment 2011

John Hodgman is a correspondent for Comedy Central’s ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’, is the author of two hilarious almanac’s of highly useful information (‘The Areas of My Expertise’ and ‘More Information Than You Require’), as well as a being contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, and Wired (amongst others), and currently presides in a pseudo-judicial manner on MaximumFun podcast, ‘Judge John Hodgman’. John Hodgman will be hosting the pub quiz, giving the benediction, and interviewing Lee Unkrich at MaxFunCon.

Labels: Entertainment 2011

If you missed your chance to buy your ticket, you can email waitlist@maximumfun.org and we'll let you know if any spaces open up before June 10. Please be sure to include your name, phone number, and whether you wish to purchase a single ticket or a ticket for a couple sharing a bed.