The Kerri Edelman Show

The Kerri Edelman Show Presents NYT Bestselling Author & Artist Jim Benton

Jim Benton is an award winning cartoonist and author that regularly posts new comics across multiple platforms including GoComics, Instagram, Reddit, Imgur, Tumblr, Facebook and his own website. Dav Pilkey, creator of Captain Underpants says: “Jim Benton is a comic genius and a brilliant cartoonist.” And beloved MAD Magazine cartoonist Sergio Aragonés says: “Humor in print has many forms, what is amazing is that Jim Benton excels in all of them!” Jim is the creator of the brand It’s Happy Bunny®, which has sold over three-quarters of a billion dollars at retail. It’s won five top awards from the licensing industry, a NCS divisional award for greeting cards, and The American Librarians Association designated It’s Happy Bunny books as Top Picks for teen readers. His book series, Dear Dumb Diary–is a New York Times Best-seller, and is published in Ok15 languages. The series has over ten million books in print, and was made into a musical Made-For-TV movie, seen on Netflix and The Hallmark channel, which Jim co-wrote and produced. His series, Franny K. Stein, has sold over 5 million copies and is the winner of an Eleanor Cameron Award for kid’s science fiction. His cartoon collection, Dog Butts and Love. And Stuff like That. And Cats. was nominated for an Eisner Award. The sequel, Man, I Hate Cursive from Andrews McMeel was also nominated for an Eisner Award the following year. School Library Journal says that Benton’s 2019 title Clyde has a “sly wit!” and has listed it as a New and Noteworthy Read. And Kirkus Reviews says about his series Catwad from Scholastic “Preteens will be onboard immediately and asking for the next volume…” His newest graphic novel series Fann Club: Batman Squad was released in 2023 with DC Comics. In 2023, Jim accepted The Inkpot Award at the San Diego Comic Con for excellence in Comic Arts. For more information, visit www.jimbenton.com

The Kerri Edelman Show Presents Poet Bart Edelman

Bart Edelman was born in Paterson, New Jersey, and spent his childhood in Teaneck. He earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Hofstra University. He has taught at Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York, Santa Monica College, West Los Angeles College, Long Beach City College, UCLA, and Glendale College, where he edited Eclipse, A Literary Journal. Most recently, he was appointed to the Affiliate Faculty in the MFA Program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. He was Poet-in-Residence at Monroe College of the State University of New York. His work has been widely anthologized in textbooks published by City Lights Books, Etruscan Press, Fountainhead Press, Harcourt Brace, Longman, McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Prentice Hall, Simon & Schuster, Thomson, the University of Iowa Press, Wadsworth, and others. He has been awarded grants and fellowships from the United States Department of Education, the University of Southern California, and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin to conduct literary research in India, Egypt, Nigeria and Poland. In addition, he received National Endowment for the Humanities grants for a series of lectures at public libraries on “The Common Good: Individualism and Commitment in American Life,” and “Trails: Toward a New Western History.” Collections of his poetry include Crossing the Hackensack (Prometheus Press), Under Damaris’ Dress (Lightning Publications), The Alphabet of Love (Red Hen Press), The Gentle Man (Red Hen Press), The Last Mojito (Red Hen Press), The Geographer’s Wife (Red Hen Press), Whistling to Trick the Wind (Meadowlark Press), and This Body Is Never at Rest: New and Selected Poems 1993 – 2023 (Meadowlark Press). He lives in Pasadena, California. For more information, visit at bartedelman.com and follow him on Facebook.

The Kerri Edelman Show presents New Yorker Cartoonist & Illustrator Dan Misdea

Dan Misdea is a cartoonist for The New Yorker. He spent several years in finance before drawing funny pictures for a living. His work has also appeared in Air Mail, Narrative, The Times Luxury, and elsewhere. His first children's book, The Light Inside, is available now. He lives and draws in New Jersey. For more information, visit www.danmisdea.com and follow @danmisdea

The Kerri Edelman Show Presents Comedian & Cartoonist Teresa Roberts Logan

An Award-Winning Stand-Up Comic and Cartoonist, Teresa Roberts Logan has appeared on HBO, A&E and The Comedy Channel. She has worked at some of the best clubs in the country, including Comedy Works, Catch A Rising Star, Flapper’s Burbank, and even The Comedy Cellar in Dublin, Ireland. She has opened for Maria Bamford, Paula Poundstone and Ardal O’Hanlon. As a cartoonist, her cartoons and comics regularly appear in GoComics and Tapas along with her making appearances at New York Comic-Con, Small Press Expo and Toronto Comic Arts Festival, among others. Finally, she loves making people laugh from stage to page. For more information, visit her at laughingredhead.com and follow her on Instagram & TikTok at @LaughingRedhead

The Kerri Edelman Show Presents Comedian, Actor & Writer Cathy Ladman

As one of the country's top comedians, Cathy Ladman presents herself as the self-probing, anxiety-venting person that she is. She has appeared on "The Tonight Show" ten times and was also featured on the last two of Johnny Carson’s "Tonight Show Anniversary" shows. She’s been on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” five times, has had her own HBO "One Night Stand" comedy special, and was awarded the American Comedy Award for Best Female Stand Up Comic. Her TV and film credits include: recurring roles on, ”I’m Dying Up Here” and “Pretty Little Liars,” “Modern Family,” “Scandal,” “How to Get Away With Murder,” “NCIS: LA,” “Mad Men,” “Brothers and Sisters,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Caroline in the City” (recurring), "Everybody Loves Raymond," Politically Incorrect,” “Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist,” “Charlie Wilson’s War,” “The Aristocrats,” "White Oleander,” "What Planet Are You From?," "My Fellow Americans," and "Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead.” Her solo show, “Does This Show Make Me Look Fat?” opened this past year. For more information, visit www.cathyladman.com and follow her on Instagram (@cathyladman1) and Facebook & Twitter (@cathyladman).

The Kerri Edelman Show Presents Comedian & Author Claudia Stavola

Claudia Stavola began her career as a stand-up comedian when she realized the office thing wasn’t for her (she hates casual Friday, and chipping in for gifts for people who grunt when she says “hello” in the hallway.). She is also a writer for the satirical rock and roll website, Madhouse Magazine, and the host of the hard rock/heavy metal morning show on Monsters of Rock on Dash Radio—a station that boasts over 800,000 listeners per day. She can be heard weekdays from 8:00 AM to Noon EST/5:00 AM to 9:00 AM PST. As a writer & author, Stavola recently published her book, '100 Things to Hate Before You Die,' which is a  funny, relatable, and irreverent escape for comedy fans who are fed up with everything going on in the world, but can still find humor in the dumb and dumber. In this uproarious, honest, and biting collection of essays, she shares her unapologetic rantings, true stories, lists, observations, silly solutions to serious problems, and absolute fury over inconsequential things like the shorts-all-year-long guy and Gwyneth Paltrow’s vagina candle, to more provocative topics such as angry “patriotic” guys, and dating show dimwits. There are plenty of guides for where to travel, what to eat, or what to watch before you die, but when you’re flooded with antipathy over just about everything, it’s hard to know where to direct your disdain. Claudia is here to help! '100 Things to Hate Before You Die,' available on Amazon, is an easy-to-read collection of fiery musings that will help you focus on what to hate and why. Get ready for a ride of emotions—you’ll go from pissed off to more pissed off—but in the most hilarious, engaging, and funny way possible. You can also find her and follow her on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook @ClaudiaComedy making dance videos with her cats, Hall and Oates.

The Kerri Edelman Show Presents Award-Winning Playwright Brett Neveu

Brett Neveu is an Award-Winning Playwright. His Film/TV productions include Eric LaRue (dir. Michael Shannon) with Big Indie Pictures, Brace Cove Productions and CaliWood Pictures, Night’s End (dir. Jennifer Reeder) with Shudder/AMC, the short Convo with Breakwall Pictures and the feature The Earl with Intermission Productions. Recent theatre productions include The Malignant Ampersands with A Red Orchid Theatre, Verböten with House Theatre (Joseph Jefferson Nomination, New Work), Traitor with A Red Orchid Theatre (Joseph Jefferson Award, New Adaptation) and To Catch a Fish with Timeline Theatre. Past work includes productions with 59e59 Theatre in New York; The Royal Court Theatre and The Royal Shakespeare Company in London, to name a few. A Sundance Institute Ucross Fellow, Brett is a recipient of a Steinberg/ATCA New Play Citation (Verböten), The Marquee Award from Chicago Dramatists, The Ofner Prize for New Work and an After Dark Award for Outstanding Musical (Old Town), to name a few. He has developed plays with companies including The Atlantic Theatre Company and The New Group (NY) and The Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre and Victory Gardens Theatre (IL). He is a resident-alum of Chicago Dramatists, an ensemble member of A Red Orchid Theatre, a founding member of the playwright collective MC-10, an alumni member of TimeLine Theatre Company’s Writers Collective and Center Theatre Group’s Playwrights’ Workshop (LA). Brett has been commissioned by The Royal Court Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Steppenwolf Theatre Company and A Red Orchid Theatre, to name a few. His plays have been published through Broadway Play Publishing, Dramatic Publishing and Nick Hern Publishing. He has taught writing at DePaul University, Second City Training Center and currently teaches writing for the screen and stage at Northwestern University.

The Kerri Edelman Show Presents Cartoonist & Illustrator Rich Sparks

Rich Sparks is a cartoonist/illustrator living in Chicago. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Air Mail Weekly, Weekly Humorist,The American Bystander, Barron's,The Wall Street Journal, SpongeBob Comics, Narrative Magazine, and probably other places. He released a NY Times bestselling book of humorous drawings called Love and Other Weird Things. (The bestselling part is a lie.) For more information, visit www.richsparksillustration.com

The Kerri Edelman Show Presents Cartoonist, Illustrator & Writer David DeGrand

David DeGrand is a cartoonist from Texas that enjoys drawing pictures that make people laugh or barf (preferably both). He used to draw comics for his high school and college newspapers but since then has written and drawn for MAD Magazine, SpongeBob Comics, The Simpsons, Garfield, and Uncle Grandpa among others. He has also illustrated numerous children's books including The Zombie Chasers and World of Weird Animals series, and designed the animated series Death Hacks for Augenblick Studios. Most recently he illustrated the graphic novel Snot Goblins for First Second Books which will be released in July of 2023. For more information, visit www.degrandland.com

The Kerri Edelman Show Present Award-Winning Composer & Pianist Jeffrey Biegel

The life of Jeffrey Biegel takes its roots from age three, when Mr. Biegel could neither hear nor speak, until corrected by surgery. The 'reverse Beethoven' phenomenon explains his life's commitment to music, having heard only vibrations in his formative years. The year of 2020 focused on composition and commissioning projects: original "Waltzes of Hope", "Sonatina", and "Three Reflections: JFK, RBG and MLK" for solo piano, and for piano and orchestra, orchestrations by Harrison Sheckler. Autumn 2021 sees the world premieres of his "Reflection of Justice: An Ode to Ruth Bader Ginsburg" with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's "Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg" for mezzo-soprano, piano and orchestra in tribute to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, with mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. Considered the most prolific artist of his generation, Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA, conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters upon Mr. Biegel in 2015, for his achievements in performance, recordings, chamber music, champion of new music, composer, arranger and educator. In 2019, Kenneth Fuchs's "Piano Concerto: 'Spiritualist'" with the London Symphony Orchestra led by JoAnn Falletta received a Grammy Award for Best Classical Compendium, featuring Mr. Biegel as its soloist. In 2022, he will premiere Jim Stephenson's piano concerto, Daniel Perttu's 'A Planets Odyssey' for piano and orchestra, Farhad Poupel's "The Legend of Bijan and Manije" for piano, orchestra and chorus, and Peter Boyer's "Rhapsody in Red, White & Blue" in 2023. Mr. Biegel also created the first largest consortium of orchestras in 1998 for Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's 'Millennium Fantasy' premiered with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 2000! For more information, visit jeffreybiegel.com