Bullseye With Jesse Thorn

We're taking a look back at some of our favorite moments from over two decades worth of Bullseye episodes. In 2018, we caught up with journalist and author Susan Orlean. Susan's an accomplished author who's written for The New Yorker for thirty years. Her work has also appeared in Esquire and Vogue. She's the author of 8 books including; Saturday Night, My Kind of Place and The Orchid Thief. Susan chats with us about her most recent book, The Library Book, which is out now in paperback.

Now that The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is in its third season, we're revisiting our interview with actor Tony Shalhoub. He talks about how he loves acting in Mrs. Maisel's low-tech world and how he relates to his character Abe as a father himself. Jeese also chatted, of course, about the show he played an OCD detective on for seven years, the award-winning series Monk. Plus, Tony talks about the film that inspired him to embark on his creative path as an actor.

Twyla Tharp has moved her whole life. She dances - she's danced and choreographed professionally for 55 years now. She exercises. And now, she has a book. "Keep it Moving" is a manifesto on living your life with purpose and vigor, which Tharp has in spades. Seriously, she's one of the most insightful, hilarious, brilliant and sassy guests we've ever had on the show. She's a legend in the world of dance. She also kind of makes fun of Jesse's dog, and chides him for not moving enough.

Rob Huebel joins us to talk about his new series Medical Police - the spin-off of his old show Children's Hospital, which ran for seven seasons on Adult Swim. He's a talented comic actor who has appeared on MTV's Human Giant and on Amazon's critically-acclaimed series Transparent. Rob sits down with Jesse to talk about where he gets his sense of humor from, what it's like playing jerks with a heart of gold and how he got his start in improv. Plus, he'll talk to us about his favorite types of silly comedies. All that and more on a all-new Bullseye!

In Fabric's Marianne Jean-Baptiste joins us to talk about her role in Peter Strickland's bizarre thriller. Marianne is an acting veteran. She's starred in varied works, from acclaimed dramas like Secrets & Lies, to long-running FBI shows like Without a Trace. Marianne chats with us about the difference between feature and series acting, and how her role in In Fabric reconnected her with her passion for the process. Plus, she'll tell us about the time she read a newspaper for 45-minutes as part of an audition.

Tanya Tucker is an award-winning country star who has been making music since she was just a kid! She rose to fame in the 70s with hits like "Love's the Answer" and her debut single "Delta Dawn." Her latest album is titled "While I'm Livin" and it's her first collection of original music in over 15 years. It's a lot more personal than some of her previous records with songs written that reflect her life. Tanya Tucker talks to Bullseye about how she approaches songs she's been singing since she was a teen, traveling on the road with her family and turning down the romantic advances of one Mr. Elvis Presley! Yep, the one and only! Plus she tells us about the time her father won the money to pay for her demo tape in a fortunate game of keno. All that and more on the next Bullseye!

We lost an incredibly talented cartoonist last year, Gahan Wilson. For more than 50 years, his twisted single-panel cartoons have appeared in magazines like Playboy and The New Yorker. His work always had this really distinct tone. Wilson's take on the macabre is loopy, dark and strange. There were monsters. Sometimes aliens. Maybe a pirate. To remember his life, his work and his impact we are revisiting Jesse's interview with Gahan from 2010. In it, he talked about the arc of his career and using childhood fears as inspiration. He also talked about his contributions to the National Lampoon.

We're taking a moment to look back at a past Bullseye guests we lost this year, Caroll Spinney. He was Big Bird's puppeteer for 50 years, but he was so much more than the literal man inside the costume. Caroll was the voice and spirit of the iconic character many of us grew up watching.

It's our favorite time of the year: the end of it! We're celebrating 2019 with excerpts from some of the best stand up comedy records of 2019. You'll hear material from Roy Wood Jr, Pete Holmes, Cristela Alonzo, Sara Schaefer, so many more. Enjoy, and Seasons Greetings from all of us at Bullseye!

Get ready for a bonanza of holiday cheer! This week, we're listening back on the Bullseye holiday special from last year. Micky Dolenz of The Monkees talks about the band's album Christmas Party. The group recorded it with a cavalcade of hit-makers like Rivers Cuomo, Peter Buck of REM and more. And that's not all! We also get some advice from the McElroy Brothers (hosts of My Brother, My Brother and Me and The Adventure Zone) about holiday conundrum. Plus, soul singer Sy Smith — she tells us about the holiday song that changed her life.

Imelda Marcos is one of the most notorious figures in recent history, and she's the subject of Lauren Greenfield's new documentary The Kingmaker. It's an intimate profile of the former Philippine first lady as well as a critique on plutocracy. Lauren tells us how she got access to interview Marcos and about her other films: Generation Wealth and the brilliant Queen of Versailles.

Hey! It's the brilliant animator, writer and songwriter Rebecca Sugar! Creator of the wildly popular Steven Universe. She's earned six Primetime Emmy Award nominations for the series and is the first non-binary woman to independently create a series for Cartoon Network. Rebecca discusses the inspiration behind the show, creating femme characters and dealing with fan feedback. Plus, Jesse and Rebecca talk about some of their favorite cartoons growing up!

Join us as we dig in the archives and revisit our conversation with Kathryn Hahn. You've seen her in comedy films like Step Brothers, the Anchorman movies, and many more. These days you can catch her on HBO's Mrs. Fletcher. But when Hahn joined us a couple years ago she starred in Amazon's I Love Dick, based on the Chris Klaus book by the same name. Hahn and Jesse talk about the inherently feminist space that I Love Dick inhabits, and the deeply complex character that Kathryn plays on the show. She talks about working with Jill Soloway, and the special and deeply creative environment that Soloway creates on set.

Dig into the archives with us as we revisit our conversation with the great actor Tim Blake Nelson! Currently, he's starring in the brand new, critically acclaimed HBO show Watchmen. On Bullseye, he talks to us about growing up in Tulsa (where Watchmen is set), working with the Coen brothers and the time he got into acting because his mom yelled at him.

Alice Waters is a chef, an activist and a best-selling author. She is the founder of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, a restaurant that sources ingredients from local farmers and producers and is widely credited with being the genesis of today's sustainable food movement. She cares deeply about the way that we eat and has dedicated much of her life to ensuring children receive nutritious and flavorful school lunches. She also works to educate kids on how food is made. Alice stops by Bullseye to talk to us about when it first occurred to her that she would like to cook for a living, receiving her first French cookbook and the most challenging meal she's ever tried to cook. Plus, she'll tell us about the one food she's not too crazy about.

Lin-Manuel Miranda is the star and creator of the biggest musical this century has seen: Hamilton. These days, he's got another show on Broadway: Freestyle Love Supreme. It's an improvised hip-hop performance where the performers get their prompts from the audience. He's also starring in the new HBO show His Dark Materials. It's a fantasy series based on the book by the same name. Lin-Manuel Miranda talks about how his career has changed since Hamilton. We'll also talk about the time he turned down a part in a Marvel movie.

The Craziest Day Of My Entire Career is a segment where we let some of our favorite people tell us the wildest stories from their long and storied time in showbiz. This time it's Tim Heidecker, a comedian, actor and creator of intricate worlds in which he often plays a fictionalized version of himself. One of these alter-Tim's is Special Agent Jack Decker, a spy that could easily be the illegitimate spawn of Trump and Chuck Norris. He'll tell us about a time when this character for his show Decker was just a little too on the nose, just a little too close for comfort.

Rosie Perez is one of the most fascinating people we've had on Bullseye. A native of Bushwick, Brooklyn, she's performed on stage and screen. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in 1993's Fearless, had iconic parts in White Men Can't Jump and Do The Right Thing. She's been a host on ABC's The View, served as Grand Marshal for the International Boxing Hall of Fame and as if all of that weren't enough, she was a powerhouse choreographer for In Living Color and is responsible for helping to bring hip hop to the living rooms of middle America. We talked to Rosie about her difficult childhood, surviving past trauma and why she'll always have a soft spot for the suburbs. Plus, she'll tell us why she prefers the New York hustle and bustle over sunny Los Angeles. Rosie speaks with us from the heart and we're so happy to have her on the show.

Megan Mullally is a comedy legend known for playing eccentric characters. She got her big break playing perhaps her most over-the-top persona, the martini-toting socialite Karen Walker on the groundbreaking show Will and Grace. Mullally won an Emmy for this role in 2006. On Bullseye she talks to us about how she developed her character Karen, her not-so usual upbringing, and oddly enough, how it was to win an Emmy Idol with Donald Trump.

Forest Whitaker has got this knack for taking huge figures from history and portraying them as complex, fascinating, sometimes really fragile people. You've seen him as the star of countless great movies for over thirty years now. He has won plenty of awards including an Academy Award for best actor for his role as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. When we spoke last year, he portrayed Archbishop Desmond Tutu in the film The Forgiven. Forest chats with Jesse about getting to know Archbishop Tutu as a character and a friend over the years. Plus, hot takes on box-office flop Battlefield Earth! This interview originally aired in March of 2018