Don't Be Alone with Jay Kogen cover art

Don't Be Alone with Jay Kogen

Don't Be Alone with Jay Kogen

By: Straw Hut Media
Listen for free

Don’t Be Alone with Jay Kogen is a comedy/advice podcast trying to fight the isolation of modern life. Each episode, Award winning TV writer/comedian/philosopher Jay Kogen has a conversation with a friend about how to solve the problems on Jay’s mind. These friends happen to be famous comics, musicians, actors, artists, writers, and sometimes even his family. It’s an entertaining, fun, and thoughtful show meant to bond us through humor, experience, and empathy.From Straw Hut MediaStraw Hut Media Art Performing Arts Stand-up Shows
Episodes
  • Actress/Writer Cheri Oteri Is Optimistic About Everything But Jay

    Actress/Writer Cheri Oteri Is Optimistic About Everything But Jay
    May 26 2026
    Cheri talks about growing up in a rough house with a lot of kids and a young mom and pretending to escape and maybe grab some attention. She talks about imitating TV shows, soap operas and Joe Cocker. She talks about moving from Pennsylvania to California to pursue dreams of acting after a break-up and found herself in the heart of Panorama City nowhere near Hollywood. Later she found early success in LA @ A&M RECORDS. In fact she was so successful it was a little hard to give it up when it was time to start performing full time after she became a star at THE GROUNDLINGS. She talks about how her writing at The Groundlings helped her at SNL. How Laraine Newman was always encouraging even while breast feeding. How Matt Piedmont and Will Ferril were great writing partners. How sitcoms are pure fun. And how making charcuterie boards with vaguely dirty names is going to change the world for the better. Bio: Cheri Oteri was born in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia and later moved to LA, where she worked in promotions for A&M Records. She joined the Groundlings, and in 1995, the producers of Saturday Night Live saw one of her monologues, which led to an audition and eventually being hired as a cast member, where she starred for five seasons. As of late, Cheri can be seen recurring on Happy’s Place for NBC, Mid Century Modern for HULU as well as in And Just Like That… for MAX. She has also appeared in several films, including Scary Movie, Inspector Gadget, Liar Liar, Dumb and Dumberer,Shrek the Third, Southland Tales, and Grown Ups 2. In 2009, Oteri became a regular voice on Fox’s animated comedy series Sit Down, Shut Up, which later moved to Comedy Central. She also voiced “Esther” on Disney’s Puppy Dog Pals. Cheri has made multiple guest appearances on sitcoms such as The CW’s My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, TruTV's Those Who Can't, NBC's Just Shoot Me! (in which she was nominated for an Emmy), Hot in Cleveland, and as an emotionally unstable nanny on the Golden Globe and Emmy award winning series Curb Your Enthusiasm. She has appeared multiple times on CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    52 mins
  • Michael Elias wrote "The Jerk", Jay IS The Jerk

    Michael Elias wrote "The Jerk", Jay IS The Jerk
    May 19 2026
    Writer, Michael Elias, talks about growing up in the Catskills, where you had to make your money in the summer to survive the winter, and how that created a lot of tension. He also talks about taking acting classes, dealing with being an actor, and how acting helped him build scenes and characters. He talks about working for Glen Campbell without realizing how talented he was. He discusses his book Benders, L.A. and talks about going to Plato's Retreat and not scoring. He talks about Steve Martin and how The Frisco Kid was not what he originally thought it would be. It was originally supposed to be directed by Mike Nichols and star John Wayne. Carl Reiner may have made The Jerk better. Garry Marshall made Young Doctors in Love better, but some movies simply don’t turn out the way you want them to. Michael wants people to know that Jews were all over the West and that minorities helped build this country. He says there was always a hangout somewhere. Mel Brooks was an egalitarian. Michael talks about having many writing partners, including Arnie Kogen, Rich Eustis, and Frank Shaw. He talks about getting kicked off The Ed Sullivan Show, writing for The Tonight Show, and learning from Neil Simon and Ed Weinberger. He wishes he could tell his mother what’s going on in his life now and imagines writing letters to her today. He also talks about giving yourself permission to stop reading books halfway through. He remembers me playing with the microphone at my bar mitzvah. He talks about paying rent at forty-two dollars a month while working as a substitute teacher. His father, a doctor, never really understood what he did until he saw the pilot of Head of the Class. Howard Hesseman had demands even though he was about to be fired. Bio: Michael Elias grew up in the Catskill Mountains, a Red Diaper Borscht Belt Baby in a world of artists, intellectuals, tumlers, folk singers, boxers, and Jewish gangsters, some of whom sleep at the bottom of Loch Sheldrake. His childhood heroes were Jerry Lewis, Harry Belafonte, Rocky Marciano, and Abe ‘Kid Twist’ Reles. Educated in the classics at St. John’s College, Elias took his knowledge of ancient Greek and philosophy to New York, trained at the Actors Studio, acted in The Living Theatre, La MaMa and the Judson Poets Theatre. From there Elias and Frank Shaw dove into the world of stand-up comedy, playing coffee shops, night clubs, with five stints on The Tonight Show. Fired from Ed Sullivan they abandoned the act and came to Hollywood where he and Shaw wrote sit-coms, variety shows, and The Frisco Kid. After parting ways, Elias participated in the anti-Vietnam War movement, earned a subpoena from a Nixon grand jury, and teamed up with Rich Eustis and created Head of the Class. Elias continues to write novels and screenplays in Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife Bianca Roberts and their dachshund Mabel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    53 mins
  • Author/Actress Annabelle Gurwitch Has Cancer Yet Jay Is The Worst Thing That Ever Happened to Her.

    Author/Actress Annabelle Gurwitch Has Cancer Yet Jay Is The Worst Thing That Ever Happened to Her.
    May 12 2026
    Actress/Author Annabelle Gurwitch talks about living with stage 4 cancer, dating a hard rock tour manager, making each day count, the search for cures, ketamine fails, finding joy in writing, medicine overload, and the joys of hand painted wallpaper. Bio: ANNABELLE GURWITCH is a New York Times bestselling author of six books, and two-time Thurber Prize finalist. Her writing appears in The New Yorker and New York Times, Hollywood Reporter amongst other publications. Annabelle was the longtime co-host of Dinner & a Movie on TBS, an NPR commentator, she was in too many tv shows and movies to name, but she fell into one of Larry David's comas of unknown origin on Seinfeld, she made Candace Bergen's Top 3 List of secretaries that she fired on Murphy Brown, and in her role as Rabbi Gurwitch on Better Things, she Bat Mitzvahed Academy Award winning actress Mikey Madison. She performs with The Moth Mainstage and serves as a patient advocate at scientific conferences around the globe. Her latest hilarious and helpful memoir is a national bestseller: The End of My Life is Killing Me. Annabelle says it's never too late to write your sex, drugs, and rock n roll memoir. She wrote this book after being diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, and she's learned what's important to pay attention to and find joy even in the darkest hours. She celebrates female friendships, being in it just for the sex at 60, and tells the story of how she found herself selling merch for a heavy metal band on a low rent van tour of Europe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    58 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c
No reviews yet