The Sport of Life: Chats w/ Comedians, Filmmakers, Sports Figures, Musicians, & Intellectuals

Eleven-time Emmy winner James Burrows chats with Trey Elling about DIRECTED BY JAMES BURROWS: FIVE DECADES OF STORIES FROM THE LEGENDARY DIRECTOR OF TAXI, CHEERS, FRASIER, FRIENDS, WILL & GRACE, AND MORE. Topics include: The best lesson he learned from his dad, Abe (1:15) Entering TV during a transformative time (2:34) Dying with your boots on (5:54) The difficulty of Taxi (10:04) Andy Kaufman (12:27) Louie De Palma (16:11) Having Sam & Diane to hook up in Cheers (17:11) The inspiration for Cheers (19:30) The challenges of setting a show in a bar (22:06) Replacing Coach with Woody Harrelson (24:07) Cheers never jumping the shark (27:44) The Cheers finale (28:39) Why he worked so well with Glen & Les Charles (30:15) Kelsey Grammar's brilliance (31:25) Will & Grace (35:22) The importance of 'butterflies' (40:05) Directing the Friends pilot (40:54) NewsRadio (46:15) Jason Bateman (50:01) Drawing the best out of an actor (51:54) Why he thinks of himself as lucky (53:38)

Actor & comedian David Koechner chats with Trey Elling, ahead of his headlining shows at Cap City Comedy Club. Topics include: Evolving beliefs in parental influence (0:57) Performing in Austin, TX (10:10) The perils of cell phones (12:45) Some of David's less-discussed roles (23:35) Making Larry David laugh on Curb (30:28) A favorite serious role (33:18) Covid & tech crushing our kids (34:25) Artificial Intelligence (37:40) The key to happiness (44:28) Daily triumphs (47:22)

Amy Ray and Emily Saliers of Indigo Girls chat with Trey Elling, ahead of the South By Southwest premiere of IT'S ONLY LIFE AFTER ALL, a documentary on the band's musical and social impact over more than 35 years. Topics include: Why now felt like a good time for a documentary (1:22) Something that surprised them about their own story (2:54) The 'Indigo Girls' name (6:03)

Inside Texas writer, scholar, and humorist Paul Wadlington chats with Trey Elling about THINKING TEXAS FOOTBALL, his annual preview of the Texas Longhorns football season. Topics include: Why Paul is buying the preseason optimism (2:15) Quinn Ewers (4:59) The UT running backs (9:42) An talented WR corps (13:27) The Texas offensive line (15:45) The second most important TE (20:02) Impressive depth on the D-line (21:59) Anthony Hill (24:30) Replacing Overshown (25:40) The secondary (27:40) University of Texas Stress Disorder (33:01) How Texas can win at Bama in week 2 (35:15) The most difficult conference game (39:23) Tougher game: at Baylor or at home against Texas Tech? (41:06) College football players as university employees (45:56) The conference realignment end game (50:48) Longhorn prediction (56:16)

Austin native & actor Ben McKenzie chats with Trey Elling about EASY MONEY: CRYPTOCURRENCY, CASINO CAPITALISM, AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRAUD. Topics include: Finally releasing a book that was nearly two years in the making (1:00) How "The Emperor's New Clothes" & cannabis inspired the book (1:43) What clued him in on crypto as a scam (3:32) Being a skeptic in a sea of crypto hysteria at SXSW 2022 (5:32) Visiting the largest crypto mining facility in the US (10:02) Seeing the effects of El Salvador making Bitcoin a legal tender (14:55) Interviewing Sam Bankman-Fried in the summer of 2022 (19:22) A surprising aspect of the SBF/FTX/Alameda takedown (21:30) Ben testifying in front of the Senate Banking Committee (22:58) Is he considering a film adaptation? (24:30) What he loves about his hometown of Austin, TX (26:37)

Comedian, podcaster and actor Bryan Callen chats with Trey Elling, ahead of his headlining shows at Cap City Comedy Club, August 3-5. Topics include: Authors and their books (2:03) The return of BEST OF, WITH BRYAN CALLEN (4:24) The magnificence of the Redwoods (5:31) Awe (9:25) Sharing the stage with Alex Jones at Minds Fest (12:32) Cap City Comedy Club (13:47) Jon Stewart (15:22) Race (16:42) Gavin Newsom (18:32) The new comedy hour (24:05) Hitting 'both' sides of a taboo subject (25:49) What awed Bryan in Israel this summer (28:28) Gender identity politics (36:47)

High school creative writing teacher and first-time author BT Hayes chats with Trey Elling about EXPECTATIONS. Topics include: The feeling of being published for the first time (0:35) The basis of Expectations (1:32) A timeline for the book (2:10) Enjoying the research (3:28) Picking up teenage dialogue thru his day job (5:33) His fears for his own daughter manifesting in the book (7:25) Have his kids read the book? (9:07) A nervousness in sharing a morbid piece of work (9:24) Why the title is "Expectations" (11:13) Playing with preconceived notions (11:50) A lesson from writing his first novel (14:16)

Legendary former casting director Joel Thurm chats with Trey Elling about SEX, DRUGS, & PILOT SEASON: CONFESSIONS OF A CASTING DIRECTOR. Topics include: Joaquin Phoenix’s influence on the book (0:00:57) Growing up on a dairy farm in Brooklyn, NY (0:02:58) David Merrick’s influence on Joel’s career (0:08:16) How Pearl Bailey got Joel to Hollywood (0:13:03) LSD, a puffy shirt, & Jesus Christ Superstar (0:16:21) Learning how to handle people from Ethel Winant (0:21:12) The Minutes on CBS (0:23:46) Charlton Heston (0:27:18) Casting Susan Sarandon The Rocky Horror Picture Show (0:28:03) Why Aaron Spelling Leonard Goldberg made such a good team (0:30:49) The Boy In The Plastic Bubble (0:33:14) Grease as an example of Joel’s philosophy on money & creativity (0:38:45) Olivia Newton John’s “Slutty Sandy” scene (0:40:52) Getting the team back together for Grease Live in 2019 (0:43:26) The joys of working on Taxi (0:47:11) Airplane! (0:55:36) Why Peter Graves & Kareem Abdul Jabbar getting cast (0:59:06) Leslie Nielsen reinventing himself with Airplane! (1:00:55) Ted Danson, Shelly Long, & Cheers (1:03:10) Choosing Claire Huxtable for The Cosby Show (1:06:59) Joel bucking “casting couch” stereotype (1:11:39) What he would’ve done differently (1:20:25) Why he stopped casting in the early 1990s (1:23:24) Joel’s last casting job (1:25:30)

Standup comedian Ali Siddiq chats with Trey Elling, ahead of his headlining shows at Joe Rogan's Comedy Mothership on July 28th & 29th. Ali's new standup special, DOMINO EFFECT II: LOSS, is out now. Topics include: His impressions of the Comedy Mothership (0:54) Focusing on 'loss' in his new special (1:56) Letting your kids lament their trivial problems (4:54) Why he operates the way he does (6:53) The biggest challenge for parents in 2023 (16:36) The importance of playing sports (22:48) Good boxers--and athletes--remaining positive (29:02)

Actor Jake Johnson chats with Trey Elling about MINX, ahead of the season 2 premiere at the ATX TV Festival. The new season premieres on STARZ on July 21st. Topics include: Austin, TX (0:42) Acting in a 1970s period piece (1:27) The story being told in MINX (2:35) Where season 2 picks up (3:34) Jake's first job (4:10) Not putting success over relationships (5:15) A hilariously weird scene from season 1 (7:02) The key to a good story (8:39)