Jonathan Katz (Actual Size)

Even MORE Background Notes from Jay Allison

Still reading before listening? Shame on you. Okay. You were warned. Here's all the ruinous-to-comedy process talk.

This started when Valerie Velardi and Davia Nelson began bugging Jonathan to think about getting on public radio. Jonathan was a tape recorder geek as a kid and had lots of old reels lying around -- preserved fragments of himself, his sister, his parents and relatives. We began to make a piece out of this for Lost & Found Sound, which was later finished up by This American Life.

That was fun, but we still wanted to find ways to feature Jonathan's uncanny timing in a more freeform way. The telephone. That's where his quipping and timing are best. So, we figured we'd try some kind of phone thing. These were some of the ideas:

- A guy who calls operators and other phone workers and pesters them. "Do you have a listing in Miami for a hospice under the name 'Jokers'?" "Do you have a listing for Bob Wilson in Canterbury... that's 'C' as in 'Canterbury,' 'A' as in 'anterbury,' 'N' as in "nterbury", etc." The only states which legally permit this kind of immaturity are New York and Nevada. Next idea.

- A guy who *thinks* he has a call-in show, who answers his home phone, "Is the caller there?"

- A call screener for a call-in show. Maybe a crazy or irritating one. Jonathan even called some call screeners to find out more about this job. He irritated them.

- The host of a call-in show of undetermined nature. Maybe on sports, lovelife, technology, home and garden care, or all of it. Its title might be "Anything Goes." Or maybe it's a show about unexplainable phenomenon, "Seeing is Believing." Or "Food for Thought." Wait, that's taken. Okay, something else. Who knows?

So we sort of went with this last idea and Jonathan sent out an email to various of his improvisatory friends and we set up a time for Jonathan to sit in our Cape & Islands radio stations and make the calls, one after the other. That's what you will hear. Sometimes the imaginary show had the title "Seeing is Believing." Sometimes it had no title at all and Jonathan surrendered his host identity to giggling.

Now we think the show is called "You're On The Air With Jonathan Katz." Dean Olsher and Amanda Aronczyk are pulling it together to fit in their show, "The Next Big Thing." We're putting it here at Transom (where Jonathan had a short piece a year ago, made in his attic) to deconstruct and analyze, because that's what we do.

Email sent by Jonathan to his improvisation partners:

On Monday, with your help, I'm recording a segment for a show on WNYC called "The Next Big Thing." The host of the show is Dean Olsher, pronounced Dean Olsher, will be helping us from his studio in NYC and Jay Allison, producer extraordinaire for public radio, will be helping from his studio in Woods Hole, Ma. We'll be pretending that you are the caller even though we will be generating the calls. These are some of the ideas I'd like to mess around with and because it will be edited, we can stop and start as much as you like.

SEGMENTS

#1
The first segment is called "FOOD FOR THOUGHT", in which I play a call screener for a radio show called "Food for Thought". Today's topic might be "What would you do if you got a collect call from the Pope? Would you accept the charges? If not, why? Before I can "put you on the air" I'll have to ask you a few quick questions. Thank you for your patience.

Another subject might be: how do you feel about our government spending your tax dollars on a "National Middle Name Day?"

#2
You're on the air talking to the host of a radio show called: "SEEING IS BELIEVING" You've called in to describe something for which there is no scientific explanation.

#3
In a third segment, I will be happy to answer any questions revolving around professional sports, up to, and including three cushion billiards.

#4
Segment #4 is you calling me as the host of a show called: "YOUR GUESS IS AS GOOD AS MINE". On this show, I'm an expert on any subject you want to talk about.

#5
The final segment is advice to people who are unlucky in love but good at cards.

Other possible areas: parenting, parenting your parents, health and nutrition, spirituality (I pretty much know it all).

Thank you all in advance for your help and your continuing support of my pet cause, "The Nervous Tick."

Love,
jonathan

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