DLG2525 Lana Siebel is real about the hard work behind her career as a successful headlining, touring comedian.

Having Ralf Jean-Pierre aka PRECIOUS GORGEOUS on today was great. He's a very talented Actor, Rapper-Songwriter, Comedian, Podcaster, + Professor. He is a great Radio Free Brooklyn Host as well—his completely original improv show, No Suggestions is HILARIOUS. LISTEN HERE I know from listening to this episode where he says he hasn't been in a relationship for three years and he's getting ready to be in one, so I thought this was something we could work on. Ralf generously shares why the realtionship was great, how he was taken by surprise when it ended and all the hard work and changes and BIG GROWTH he's gone through as a result. I felt super optimistic about him by the end—I hope he did too! Instagram: @presciousgorgeousralf @nosuggestionpod https://preciousgorgeous.com/ No Suggestion Podcast HERE Ralf Jean-Pierre BIO: Ralf Jean-Pierre aka Precious Gorgeous, is a first generation Haitian-American rapper-songwriter, actor, and comedian from Brooklyn, NY. He earned a BFA in Performing Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design. He has studied improv comedy at the People’s Improv Theater, and has studied clown with Christopher Bayes, Virginia Scott, and Eric Davis. In 2012, Ralf and his collaborator Jolie Tong developed a one-man musical chronicling the true account of how Ralf spent all of 2012 riding his bicycle around the United States, performing a one-man Shakespeare on the streets called WHAT SHOULD BE THE FEAR, which debuted at Gamba Forest in 2017. Precious Gorgeous released the self-produced record Tryna Get My Live Together, the mixtapes TRIP and Brooklyn Petting Zoo, and Everyone Dies From a Bullet vol 1, a secret, underground covers record, all of which you can find on Precious Gorgeous’ music page.  From 2018-2023 Ralf was a member of North Coast, NYC’s premier and hip-hop improv comedy team. Previously Ralf held a number of prestigious teaching artist positions, like teaching improv comedy to incarcerated youth for Drama Club, as well for working as teacher-performer Puppetry in Practice, and the NYU-Creative Arts Team. Since 2022 Ralf has hosted the weekly improv comedy podcast No Suggestion, where has deep, thoughtful, meandering conversations with the funniest comedians in NYC, and creates improv comedy with them, live, based on those conversations. Ralf currently teaches as an adjunct professor for the Brooklyn College BFA and BA, NYU Tisch BFA, and Columbia University MFA acting programs.

It's comedian Lana Siebel's 4th time on the show! Lana is someone I personally look up to because I've witnessed her build a thriving career as a comedian, in spite of a difficult childhood, immigrating from Ukraine at age 7, an extremely critical mother, check out ep: 277 for the details. Lana's comedy career has continued to accelerate and it's fun to hear about it (maybe not always fun for Lana—serious hard work!) Her 13 year old son has gotten into the act and opens for her, participates in creating and performing in her reels. Her husband is the director/filmmaker. Lana is always inspiring. And unstoppable. If you feel stuck, this is the episode for you. Lana's Website HERE Follow Lana's Insatgram HERE Lana on TikTok HERE Previous Dr. Lisa Episodes: DLG344 This is a radical episode as comedian Lana Siebel does psychodrama with Dr. Lisa as her mother—it's CRA-ZY DLG277 Lana Siebel is a rare find in the comedy world: talented, hilarious, smart and KIND.⁠ ⁠DLG323 A funny/serious session with comedy mentor Lana Siebel.

Gavin Rogers has the most genuinely positive vibe of anyone that I canpersonally think of. I think because his happiness is the real dealand hard won. He was diagnosed with non-hodgkin's lymphoma the dayafter his 7th birthday and was very sick, in and out of hospitals,doing chemo, and all the difficulties that go with that. Gavin was lucky and remains grateful today to his rock solid supportive family for getting him through all that and coming out ok. In my opinion, on an emotional development level, maybe even better. He's been inremission since then, some 20+ years. He's still processing hisexperience, since as he gets older his perspective changes, but he isone happy dude! He has found a passion for comedy in the past few years, performs regularly, has his own show @coldbeercomedy. And that's not all! Gavin met the love of his life 10 years ago (he's only 30 now!) and they are getting married Valentine's Day!!!! I just wish I could bottle the rare version of Gavin's positivitycause it is real and you can feel it-not like "influencer" fakepositivity.

Charles H. Traub is a photography legend. His accomplishments are vast. He taught my husband photography at SVA 25 years ago. I was grateful to have a chance to interview him (Charles H. Traub is the chair of the Photography, Video and Related Media department at the School of Visual Arts in New York City)—BUSY GUY), in conjunction with his solo exhibition, Something Funny in the STILLLIFE at the Dog House Gallery, which is a gallery I run to highlight funny artists such as Charles, housed in the offices of The Brooklyn Comedy Collective, 137 Montrose Ave., Brooklyn, NY. The show is up until Jan. 2, 2026. Gallery Hours: Monday-Wednesday, 1:00pm - 7:00pm. Sundays 12-6pm Since I am a pretend *shrink*, I wanted to talk to Charles about his life and emotional/creative development in relation to his work. After reading about Charles's family on his website, I was really curious to learn how his relationship with his father had a foundational role in Charles work as well as his relationships with mentors and students. It was really interesting to hear about, as a young man, Charles formed a lot of relationships with other older photographers, inspiring him to became an innovative leading educator and world-renowned photographer. A real treat was talking with Charles about the work he's making today. His face lights up with the childlike enthusiastic vibe thats as shiny and inspired as ever. Instagram: @charlestraub Charles Traub Bio Charles Traub Website

I had a blast with Kevin Allison in this session. At over a million downloads a month, live shows all over the country, a book and more-RISK! is described as, "a hit podcast where people tell true stories they never thought they'd dare to share." Listen to any episode and you will see what we're saying! It's sooooo exceptional. Kevin is a professional sharer, so he didn't hold back with Dr. Lisa. He talks about his gay group therapy that shrinks kept quitting, his current shrink, what he's really like vs. the onstage version of Kevin, some of his dating experiences, how relationships with his fellow members of "The State" developed throughout the show, and how there will never be enough downloads to make him happy.

I've always loved Brian Boucher's work and I was finally introduced to him by Ben Davis at the spectacular Zero Art Fair opening. Anyway, I immediately invited him to guest on the show. Doing research on Brian, I observed that in his writing, he was an art writer that often gave voice to the voiceless, writing in a compelling manner about issues at the intersection of art and social causes that might otherwise go unnoticed. This recent piece in ArtNet about a rediscovered David Wojnarowicz mural in Kentucky is a great example. The other observation I had about Brian is how he doesn't inject himself into his work or even his career. Unlike many other art writers, (NO JUDGEMENT) , you don't see him sipping drinks at lavish art parties, and dinners, although I am sure he's invited and likely attends them. Which spurred me on to find out why not—what in Brian's personality influences his work? I found out he was a drummer in a punk band, 2nd youngest of five boys and a hellofalot more. Cheers to Brian for being a good sport! Bio: Brian Boucher covers art-world news in New York. He has also written for publications such as the New York Times, Playboy, New York Magazine, Frieze, Art in America and ARTnews. He studied art history at Vassar College and Williams College. Insta: @brianbboucher

WARNING: This episode may inspire you to work harder. George Hayward is a brilliant guy and a brilliantly original comedian. I met him at a favorite open mic at @PineBoxRockShop run by @steve_malden and @bobby.condon. George is very smart and talented, but his work ethic is a super power with his LASER FOCUS on standup is phonomenal. George has quite a life story. His mother is black, his father is white. Education was the top priority in his family, George is a testament to that. He got a full scholarship to Phillips Exeter Academy, then a BA from Harvard and a AB/JD degree from Stanford. Here's a story about how a kid who once thought he might become an astrophysicist, put himself through a rigorus education and found himself exceeding at standup. George has been on many prestigious New Faces shows and is well on his way to a thriving standup career. Not bad for a guy who's been in NYC for only a year. Here's some of the videos we discuss in this session: Take Ya Time: George Hayward Live From Pine Box | Stand-up Set 14:00 George Hayward Delivers The Good News in 1997 First Communion 1:04 ( Clip of George lecturing as a child ) The Good News: George Hayward Addresses the 1Ls at Stanford Law School 25:00 The 25 min set to the Stanford law students that started it all Talk to Em: George Hayward Addresses the MBAs at Stanford Business School 1:10:24 - the 60-min set with no previous open mics that started George on his professional path

I saw Matt do a super interesting comedy show at a yoga studio last month called Misguided Meditation. It was great and he's doing another one January 22 at Yoga to the People – East Village TICKETS HERE He has a great newsletter too = sign up here: THE RUBESLETTER He's a really great comedian where you walk out thinking about what you were just laughing about. This episode stuck around in my head for a while—like a good acid trip. Matt really shared a lot of personal stuff. He’s has a very successful career as a comedian performing regularly at The Comedy Cellar. His comedy is hilarious! Plus exceptionally smart, thoughtful and his work has some great messages about toxic masculinity, which was refreshing to hear from a straight dude. I harassed him to share more specifically about the points he is making, why those issues speak to him and where they come from (a prosecutor dad and artist mom). Matt understand his feelings and is very articulate, There’s a lot to draw you in. More Matt: BIO Matt Ruby is a NYC comedian that tells smart/dark jokes for people with a finely tuned BS detector. He's a regular at the Comedy Cellar in NYC, in regular rotation on SiriusXlllllllM, his album "Hot Flashes" went top 10 at iTunes, and he's been seen on Laughs on FOX, MTV's Girl Code, and The Comedy Show Show on NBC/Seeso. He's also the creator of Vooza, a video comic strip about the tech world (called the "The Spinal Tap of startups" by Mashable) and co-producer of Hot Soup, one of NYC’s longest running independently produced comedy shows. H Outside of standup, he's the creator of Vooza, a video comic strip about the tech world that’s received millions of view and was called the "The Spinal Tap of startups" by Mashable and (SIGN UP FOR THIS!!! ) he’s the author of the Rubesletter, a weekly newsletter with over 15,000 subscribers.

Mick's special: Don't Be So Positive HERE. Mick's webseries HERE. Mick's previous episode on Dr. Lisa HERE. Mick DIflo has appeared on Amazon Prime’s ‘Hunters’, AXS TV’s Gotham Comedy Live, Inside Amy Schumer, and was a contributing writer to ‘The Idiot’s Guide to Jokes’, Jest Magazine, The Huffington Post and thecomedyconsultant.com. His webseries ‘Mick: Don’t Be So Positive’, written & directed by Roger Aylward, is based on Mick’s standup comedy. The webseries won Best International Webseries at Dublin’s International Comedy Film Festival and Mick received Special Mention for Best Actor. The series also received an honorable mention award at Worldwide Short Film Festival in London. More about Mick Diflo ⁠HERE⁠. Here's a bit of what we talked about: Mick started using drugs at 11, had hepatitis twice by 17, and became a successful boxer with 10 wins out of 13 fights. But addiction derailed his boxing career when he developed double vision from too many punches. He got sober at 28 in 1984 with his brother's help - that's 41 years clean now. After recovery, he worked as an addiction counselor for 15 years before accidentally falling into comedy. What started as an acting class in Philadelphia turned into sketch comedy, and when his group couldn't make a New York show, he went solo and discovered stand-up. Now he's been doing comedy professionally for 21 years, recently released an album called "Don't Be So Positive," and created an award-winning web series. His dark humor draws from his life experiences, which makes perfect sense. He's been married to Rita for 21 years - they met in recovery, got engaged after 9 months, and she now "heckles" him during his acts while working on her own novel. Despite everything he's been through, Mick has this calm, philosophical outlook and uses comedy to process his experiences.

Misha Wurman is a professional bartender and cocktail creator. If you want to get one of Misha's original cocktails, here's 2 options of where you can visit him bartending— Paradise Lost (Tuesdays) 100 2nd Ave., New York, NY, 10003 Public Records upstairs cocktail lounge (Friday/Saturday) 233 Butler St, Brooklyn, NY 11217 Misha Wurman is 27-year-old bartender who Dr. Lisa has basically watched grow up since he was born. He's got this really interesting mixed background - Afro-Caribbean on his mom's side and Russian/Swedish/Jewish on his dad's side. Growing up was pretty complicated because he'd spend weekdays with his mom and grandma in Spanish Harlem, then weekends with his dad in this fancy SoHo loft. When his mom got sick, he ended up living with his dad's parents in Rhode Island for over six years. How He Got Into Bartending Misha went to Hampshire College to study film, but while he was there, he discovered craft cocktails at this bar called The Dancer on the Lower East Side. Now he works at two spots - Paradise Lost and Public Records - making these fancy $18-28 cocktails. He's got this whole creative approach where he calls it "making potions" and comes up with wild combinations like a white mezcal Negroni with cold brew. Every drink he makes has its own story behind it. What Makes Him Good At It The thing is, all that bouncing between different family situations as a kid actually made him really good at reading people and handling different personalities. He sees bartending as more than just mixing drinks - it's about meeting people where they're at emotionally, whether they're out having fun or dealing with something heavy. He loves how collaborative the whole cocktail scene is, and you can tell he's found a way to blend his artistic side with his natural people skills.