The Comic's Comic Presents Last Things First

Hosted by Sean L. McCarthy

Careers Comedy

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Episodes

510

Latest episode

Oct 2026

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About the show

Last Things First asks comedians and funny performers about the historic lasts and firsts in their lives as their comedy careers have blossomed.

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60 recent

October 14, 202635 min

Ruby Karp

Ruby Karp made her debut on the Upright Citizens Brigade stage when most kids her age were barely out of kindergarten. By the age of 8, Ruby had appeared on Amy Poehler's Smart Girls at the Party webseries and had become a regular monologist for the UCB's premier improv showcase, ASSSSCAT. At 10 she began writing columns for the website, Hello Giggles, and at 13, she went viral for writing about how kids her age were most definitely not on Facebook. Now 26, she has released her first comedy special, Ruby Karp: I Don't Trust Adults , on VEEPS. She caught up with me over Zoom to talk about how the grown-up comedians at the UCB turned out to be better role models than other adults, how she realized her childhood was different even from traditional child actors, how she eventually left New York City for college, then jobs making videos for Betches, CBS's After Midnight with Taylor Tomlinson , and a supporting role on camera for The Charlie Puth Show on the Roku Channel. There's a lot to get to, so let's get to it!

October 7, 202635 min

Alaina Bamfield

Alaina Bamfield is a Brooklyn-based stand-up comedian from Lansing, Michigan. She self-financed and filmed her debut comedy special, Untouchable , at The Independent Comedy Club just north of Detroit. Untouchable , which debuted on YouTube on June 7, 2026, is a half-hour of jokes that almost exclusively touches upon her experiences as a survivor of sexual abuse, one of 139 victims who took former USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar to justice. Bamfield was a 13-year-old cheerleader with a skeletal condition when she was directed to Nassar's medical offices, and 19 when Nassar was charged in court and she realized the extent of what had happened to her. She caught up with me over Zoom to talk about how she initially found comfort and catharsis in stand-up comedy, finding a comedy friend and mentor in Sam Tallent, why she decided to focus solely on turning her tragedy into comedy for her debut special, and what she jokes about onstage now to make sure her trauma doesn't define her as a comedian or as a person. There's a lot to get to, so let's get to it!

September 30, 202630 min

Garry Starr

Blink and you might've missed Damien Warren-Smith's Netflix debut, making a brief cameo onstage during the Stamptown variety comedy special. But New Yorkers can see all of him in the fall of 2026 as he has made his Off-Broadway debut with Garry Starr: Classic Penguins , a hit show at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe and winner of best show at the 2025 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Classic Penguins began its run September 3, 2026, at Studio Seaview just off of Times Square on West 43rd Street. Before becoming Garry Starr, Damien Warren-Smith was a young TV actor in his native Australia and a theatre actor in the UK. He sat down with me over Zoom to talk about finding his inner clown both during and after his time at École Philippe Gaulier, lending his name and money to the ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards, and why he enjoys living without social media, whilst still having a social media team so he's not distracted from the process of making new shows and art. There's a lot to get to, so let's get to it!

September 23, 202638 min

Elf Lyons

Elf Lyons is a British comedian and writer who performs in both the worlds of stand-up and clown, having studied in France with the late Phillippe Goulier. Her 2017 show, Swan , received a nomination for Best Show at the Edinburgh Fringe, while her 2024 show, Horses , earned Best Show from both The (ISH) Edinburgh Comedy Awards and The Comedians' Choice Awards. Her newest show, The Woman on The Edge , was the best-reviewed show of the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe, and earned her "Spirit of the Fringe" honors from The List, Scotland's biggest arts and entertainment guide. Lyons is making her American debut with an off-Broadway run at New York City's SoHo Playhouse, starting Sept. 24, 2026. She's also teaching intensive workshops on clowning and bouffon techniques this fall at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Before all of that, though, Lyons sat down with me over Zoom to discuss why she compares herself to an A24 film, her shows to concept albums, the importance of a strong work ethic, and how the Fringe has changed since the pandemic. There's a lot to get to, so let's get to it!

September 16, 202637 min

Stuart Goldsmith

Stuart Goldsmith is a British stand-up comedian who has performed on BBC's Live At The Apollo (BBC), Conan, and Russell Howard's Stand Up Central . He began his career as a street performer at age 17, and over the course of 32 years at the Edinburgh Fringe, has evolved into one of the world's preeminent climate comedians, speaking at global conferences about our world's ongoing climate crisis through his humorous perspective. His first climate-based comedy hour, Spoilers , won Best Show at the 2023 Leicester Comedy Festival, and his newest show, Canary , relates to his role as the proverbial canary in the coal mine. He's taking Canary on tour across the UK this autumn. And he's also more than 500 episodes into his own podcast, "The Comedian's Comedian." So what happens when the host of The Comedian's Comedian podcast meets The Comic's Comic's podcast? Thankfully, we spend more time learning how not to compete, how to love comedy, and how to know that while we may not be famous, we can still be very special. There's a lot to get to, so let's get to it!

August 17, 202639 min

Dan Wilbur

Dan Wilbur is a comedian and author of two humor books, "How Not To Read" and "Never Flirt with Puppy Killers." He released his first stand-up comedy album, Husband Material , in 2023, has been featured on CollegeHumor, McSweeney's and Someecards, where he also worked as the Ecards editor. Wilbur sat down with me over Zoom to talk about the thrill and agony of getting a Tumblr book deal, how he disliked JD Vance even before realizing he could pull off a great Vance impersonation during the 2024 presidential campaign, and how his comedy life has changed because of it. In August 2026, he's launching a new one-man show, "Hillbilly Allegedly," that fills us in on the stories you haven't heard about Vance with a town hall format to take your pressing questions. There's a lot to get to, so let's get to it!

August 10, 202637 min

Chloe Radcliffe

Chloe Radcliffe is a comedian and actress most recently seen on the big screen playing a comedian and magician opposite Will Arnett and Bradley Cooper in the film, Is This Thing On? Radcliffe is based in New York City but came up out of the Twin Cities comedy scene in Minnesota. Over the past couple of years, she landed on a bunch of comedy watch lists, from Just For Laughs' New Faces to Deadline to Vulture. Her TV credits include The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and After Midnight with Taylor Tomlinson . She hosts her own comedy chat series, In Tandem, where she interviews a comedian who's sitting behind her while riding a tandem bicycle. A second season of In Tandem is forthcoming later in summer 2026. Radcliffe sat down with me over Zoom to talk about all of that, as well as her one-person show, CHEAT , which she first brought to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023 and is developing for an off-Broadway run in 2026, as well as for a TV adaptation. There's a lot to get to, so let's get to it!

August 3, 202636 min

Jenny Gorelick

Jenny Gorelick is a comedian, author, actress and former Jersey girl based in New York City. She performs monthly at Club Cumming at her signature show Love, Sex, & Magic and played an adoring fan of "THE Che Diaz" in And Just Like That . Her personal essays and humor pieces have appeared in The New York Times ' Modern Love, Cosmopolitan , McSweeney's , and the New Yorker 's Shouts & Murmurs, all of which led to a book deal for The Book of Red Flags . Gorelick joined me over Zoom from Edinburgh to talk about what she learned from her first Fringe production — the two-hander Billy & The Situation with fellow comedian Gabby Bryan — as well as what she learned from launching a comedy dating podcast in March 2020 with a then-unknown Devon Walker, and how her work on the Safe For Work side of OnlyFans speaks to the financial difficulties of making it as a working comic today, including putting up the money for her solo Edinburgh Fringe debut, Sorry , which plays all of August 2026 at the Monkey Barrel in Edinburgh. There's a lot to get to, so let's get to it!

July 27, 202637 min

Kimmy Gatewood

Kimmy Gatewood is a comedian, actress and director whose newest project is directing the 2026 movie Descendants; Wicked Wonderland , the fifth installment in Disney's musical cinematic universe following the teenage children of classic Disney villains. She previously has directed episodes of Ghosts, Girls5Eva, Going Dutch, and Sesame Street, the latter of which earned her a Daytime Emmy win in 2021. In front of the camera, Gatewood's credits include multiple appearances on Conan , a small role on the film adaptation of Jersey Boys , a recurring role on Netflix's Atypical , and three seasons on the Netflix series, GLOW , where she co-starred as one of "The Beatdown Biddies" with her tag-team partner Rebekka Johnson. Gatewood, Johnson and Sarah Lowe's own comedy partnership goes back two decades to when they started a musical comedy throwback trio, The Apple Sisters, at The PIT in New York City. Gatewood sat down with me over Zoom to talk about her life and career, including her work as a digital producer for Nikki Glaser, directing a big franchise, and what comes next. There's a lot to get to, so let's get to it!

July 20, 202634 min

Michael Cruz Kayne

Michael Cruz Kayne is a comedian, actor and writer based in NYC. He wrote for the last six seasons of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he's an Emmy nominee again in 2026. At the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, he co-wrote and starred in Terrible Babysitters , a 2013 webseries with D'Arcy Carden, and directed Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson in their two-person musical, Fucking Identical Twins, which ultimately became the 2023 feature film, Dicks: The Musical . You may have seen Michael Cruz Kayne in a supporting role on Severance , or seen him tell jokes on Late Night with Seth Meyers . Ten years after one of his sons died shortly after childbirth, he went viral on Twitter writing about how he realized a decade later he needed to talk about his grief all the time — that ultimately led to an off-Broadway run with Audible for what became Sorry For Your Loss , released as a comedy special on Dropout in March 2026. Michael Cruz Kayne sat down with me over Zoom this past week to talk about his life and career and what comes next, even if the heat wave fried our Zoom in the process. There's a lot to get to, so let's get to it!