DLG2625 Diego Barnes is Madame President on a mission to better the world.

I've known Martin Kramer since he was a kid, so it's pretty exciting to see how accomplished he is now. At age 25, as a director, producer, writer and actor. We reminisce about his interest in comedy—taking classes as a high school student and his pivot to film, influenced by his lifelong best friend, Leo Rauf. Martin went to Concordia University in Montreal and fell hard for film making. He speaks enthusiastically about the videos he's made recently for Leo Rauf's band Big Leather—they are well done and highly original. Martin's also done quite a bit of acting at this point, starring in a commercial for the Baycrest Foundation for which won a Young Guns silver lion at Cannes. Martin's latest music video: Big Leather: Lemon Lanes 2025  More of Martin's work HERE: Leo Rauf's Band: https://bigleather.bandcamp.com/ Video of Dr. Lisa psychoanalyzing Martin and his dad, David Kramer

Comedian Ibhan Kulkarni at age 27 is a rising star as a comedian hes been on Just For Laughs Fresh Faces and more recently on Americas Got Talent. Dr. Lisa's first impression of Ibhan is that he is a well adjusted, happy guy and for the most part, he is. He and his family left Mumbai, spent 2 years in Singapore and then moved to the states when he was 10. Ibhan is great with people and relationships, he has a girlfriend and a best friend, comedy co-creator and RFB radio show co-host James Azzaretti Episode 1925. James and Ibhan co-host James & Ibhan Radio Show—live Sundays at 11am! Turns out Ibhan is conflict-avoidant, which is fine in his personal life, cause he's close to people that handle conflicts, but when the shit hits the fan at work it pushes him to get a new job and go to therapy. Once again proving we are all human. Also please note: Ibahn is cleaner than either his girlfriend or James. Instagram: @doublelagaan @jamesandibhan@chickenbigcomedy

Read about Felix's Spot Art in the New York Times Felix is an artist I've know for a long time and havent had a chance to really get to know. He's pretty well-known for his Good Luck Spots as Hug Spots along with his Bad Luck Spots and suicide spots Felix's work is interactive: people walking down the street notice the spots. While some may avoid them, others walk into them and others are inspired to kiss or hug. Felix is driven to make art. He's truly lived the life of an artist risking a lot for his work including harrassment and homelessness. Felix was born here six days after his mother came here from Columbia. They went back and Felix lived in a rural town there with his 2 brothers and one sister until he was 11, when his grandmother visited Columbia and brought him back with her. Through hard work and perserverance, Felix was able to attend Pratt Institute and the Art Students league, growing to become the successful working artist he is today. More about Felix and his art HERE: https://www.felixmorelo.com/ Follow Felix on Instagram: @morelofelix

Diego Barnes is a natural performance artist on a mission. To make the world a better place—and make sure everyone has a blast doing it. As a community organizer, his role that acolytes have crowned him with is Madame President. His platform is @Project2049 Witness it HERE. Diego takes you on his journey into emerging as a leader with generosity and humilty. And most important of all hilarity. He's got some big ideas worth listening to here. If you want feel personally empowered to make the world a better place, this is the Dr. Lisa episode for you. Sign up for Diego's Substack: @fromthedeskofmadampresident HERE

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