Based on his Netflix comedy special, “Blocks.” Neal Brennan interviews friends and colleagues about the things that make them feel lonely, isolated, and like something’s wrong – and how they are persevering despite these blocks.
In this week’s episode, Neal Brennan interviews comedian Beth Stelling (”If You Didn’t Want Me Then’ on Netflix) about the things that make her feel lonely, isolated, and like something’s wrong – and how she is persevering despite these blocks.
Brennan continues to perform stand-up regularly in the Los Angeles area as well as nationally. His first one-hour stand-up special Women and Black Dudes premiered on Comedy Central in 2014. In 2017, Brennan released his second one-hour stand-up special 3 Mics on Netflix to widespread critical acclaim. 3 Mics features Brennan switching between three different microphones symbolizing three different styles of comedy. On January 1st, 2019 Brennan released an all new half hour of material on Netflix as part of the Comedians of the World series. Brennan has also performed stand-up on Last Call with Carson Daly, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Lopez Tonight, and Conan.
As a film director, Brennan has helmed feature films, television episodes, documentaries, stand-up specials and nationally syndicated commercials. His directing credits include the feature film The Goods starring Jeremy Piven, multiple episodes of Inside Amy Schumer, JAY-Z’s 4:44 documentary series that featured Will Smith, Chris Rock, Kendrick Lamar, Michael B. Jordan, Trevor Noah, and other celebrities, comedian Michelle Wolf’s critically acclaimed one-hour HBO special Nice Lady, a series of commercials for the ESPY’s, and several nationally syndicated commercials for major brands featuring celebrities and athletes including Lebron James.
In 2011, Brennan, comedian Moshe Kasher, and DJ Douggpound, started a podcast called The Champs which ran until 2016. Guests on the show included actor/comedians Wayne Brady, Chris Rock, Mario Joyner, Shawn and Marlon Wayans, and David Alan Grier, adult film star Lexington Steele, rapper Too $hort, and professional basketball player Blake Griffin.
Brennan co-wrote the cult classic film Half Baked with Chappelle as well as episodes of SNL that featured Chappelle and Aziz Ansari as hosts. He also wrote comedy material for the 83rd Academy Awards and for Seth Meyers’ speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011. In that speech, Meyers infamously poked fun at Donald Trump, who was in the audience.
Starting in 2016, Brennan became a contributor to The Daily Show with Trevor Noah as “Trevor’s friend Neal.”
This Week’s Special Guest:
Beth Stelling: Starting stand-up in Chicago, Stelling became a member of Chicago Underground Comedy and hosted a Sunday night variety show in Boystown with her best friends, The Puterbaugh Sisters, for many years called Entertaining Julia (Julia was the bartender). The show is now called The Puterbaugh Show and runs in Los Angeles at AKBAR in Silver Lake the first Sunday of every month.
Beth was named “Best Stand-up Comedian in Chicago” by The Chicago Reader in 2010. Soon after she was a New Face of Comedy in Montreal’s renowned Just for Laughs Festival and re-located to Los Angeles in 2011. Within her first year in L.A., Beth made her late night TV debut on CONAN and released her debut album “Sweet Beth” on Rooftop Records. She also appeared on comedy programs such as Comedy Central’s @midnight, Chelsea Lately and The Pete Holmes Show.
Beth was asked to perform stand-up on Jimmy Kimmel Live after Jimmy saw her perform at Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles. That year Beth filmed her first half hour stand-up special with Comedy Central in Boston, and Vulture named it one of the “Best Stand-up Specials of 2015”. In conjunction with her Comedy Central special, Stelling released her second comedy album “Simply the Beth”. The Interrobang and Splitsider named it one of the top ten albums of 2015. Her second half hour stand-up special was filmed in L.A. and is now streaming on Netflix as part of The Standups series (season 1, episode 5). Beth’s first hour stand-up special “Girl Daddy” produced by Conan O’Brien and Team Coco is available now on HBO Max. The New York Times called it “The Best Debut Special of the year,” adding, “It’s a virtuosic performance, conversational while dense with jokes.”
As a writer, Beth has written on I Love You America with Sarah Silverman, The Last O.G. on TBS, HBO’s Crashing, Another Period on Comedy Central, Apple’s upcoming animated series Strange Planet and she is currently writing for season 8 of Rick and Morty for Adult Swim. Beth is a go-to hire for punch-up on features, after getting her start as an on-set writer and Associate Producer for the hit summer film Good Boys written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
On the acting front, Beth has a recurring role on Peacock’s comedy Rutherford Falls opposite Ed Helms and Jana Schmieding. She can also be seen in season 2 of Amazon’s series Red Oaks opposite Jennifer Grey, as well as guest starring on Comedy Central’s series Corporate. You’re welcome to listen to Beth’s podcast (hosted with her mom Diane) called We Called Your Mom which has two seasons on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Checkout more episodes of Blocks w/ Neal Brennan featuring Ralph Barbosa, Matt Rife, Dan Soder, Sarah Silverman, and more HERE
