Dr. Lisa Gives A Sh*t

Eric Doeringer comes by for a session before his opening. He's already gotten the thumbs up in person from art critics Jerry Saltz NY Mag) and Roberta Smith (NY Times) so I'm not feeling too much pressure to keep Eric from nerves which he keeps in check no matter what. Eric explains his work which has multiple and amusing layers while fielding my questions about what he was going to wear tonight and confirming that he had recently gotten his hair cut. I asked Eric to send me his version of the part of the session centering on his work-thanks Eric! "Return guest Eric Doeringer and I discuss his exhibition “Matson Jones & Co.” at Mulherin New York, which features Eric’s recreations of artworks by Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Often described as “close friends” or “neighbors”, Johns and Rauschenberg were also lovers from 1954 to 1961- a relationship they kept secret at the time. This was a pivotal period for both: the era when Rauschenberg made his first Combines and Johns painted his first American fl

Have you heard Emily's music? It's wonderful!! https://soundcloud.com/emilyfrembgen I developed an earworm of the good kind after hearing her new song, Butterfly, live on the show. It touches stuff. I really enjoyed having her on. You will wind up playing it over and over like I did. She plays other great songs after we therapize for a bit-so listen through. My take is that Emily is a very self-contained no bullshit lady. I think that comes from being brought up by her single mom, who also very independent. She has made her own way truly on her own a lot and has come out with some excellent music as a result. From New York, LA, Denver, 9/11 (as a teen!) I get Emily tell me her journey. Stories of acting and singing since childhood. Home schooling. I got the feeling she doesn't look to spill unless she's asked. I also mangle her name a buncha times-it's hard-not enough vowels! #EmilyFrembgen #music #comedy #singersongwriter #art #psychotherapy

Editors NOTE: Leslie had a CRAZY childhood! It involves alcohol, speaking in tongues and a family illness. All of which Leslie has triumphed. Although we sum it up nicely in this session, for more detail, please listen to our previous therapy session from a BAM project here: http://www.bam.org/visualart/2014/what-makes-you-so-special As Leslie says: "This was such a fun interview to do and it was an honor to be the guest on Lisa Levy's Radio Free Brooklyn show, "Dr. Lisa Gives a Sh*t!" We talk music, Hairspray, piano karaoke, comedy, booze, church, and bad therapists." We also discuss all the creative roads Leslie has to go down and what an embarrassment of riches can be like. Leslie Goshko (Huffington Post Comedy) is the host and creator of the monthly storytelling series, Sideshow Goshko, which has been hailed as a Time Out New York and New York Times “Critics’ Pick”, and also noted as “a well-programmed night” by the New York Times.Sideshow Goshkohas been featured on TruTV’sImpractical Jokers, NPR’sSnap Ju

Lindsay Smilow is getting a masters degree in art history in comedy and she comes in to interview me as a subject for her thesis. In this case, she is more interested in my visual art work, what I think is funny, and who my favorite comedians are. We agree on 2 of my previous "patients", Jo Firestone and Julio Torres. Lindsay gets me to talk about how I got started making art and what I was trying to communicate without sounding art-bull-shitty. Ironically enough, I originally met Lindsay when I was giving out awards on the street and I gave her one for "Carrying the conversation," which she did beautifully here. Lindsay Smilow is an artist, educator, arts administrator and project manager. She has spent the majority of her career managing education programs at New York City institutions, namely, The Queens Museum and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. http://www.micacuratorial.org/lindsay-smilow.html #art #comedy #psychotherapy

http://markdeanveca.com/home.html Mark Dean Veca is an incredible artist who combines pop art, comics and magic to make work that is exhibited world wide. Mark and I became good friends in the late 90's when we were part of the Artists in the Marketplace at the Bronx Museum along with a bunch of other great artists. Here's a review of our exhibition in the New York TImes. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/01/arts/a-flock-of-fledglings-testing-their-wings.html Mark is unusual in that he has created and maintained a lovely and nourishing family life with his wife and son. We unearth some of the mystery behind how an artist achieves such a stable and lovely home life. Hint: Marry and awesome person-Lauren!

I had a great session with one of our Radio Free Brooklyn hosts, Thomas Bekhazi—and afterwards he asked me not to post it here because he wants to keep what he said PRIVATE of all things. So if you missed it on the air, you missed it. I don't like doing this and haven't been asked to do this before believe it or not, but he's a RFB bro so I respect. The recording that you hear is simply David Letterman saying, "Is there a doctor in the house?" In order to make up for this I will post an old video of me with my hamster-bowling-on David Letterman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0mqrJNsWio #TrippinBeats

Auggie Lutz is from a normal family, churchgoers, his dad was a cop, etc. and we try to square how a guy like Auggie winds up as a comedian in Bushwick. Also he has an awesome girlfriend—are they ready to live together? Also—Auggie freaks me out because his impression of me is as being drunk in Pine Box!?

I got all jealous listening to young Christine rattle off her accomplishments (ok with my urging) and her idyllic icing-on-the-cake marriage. When you hear her talk about her mother from El Salvatore and Christine's upbringing—our perspective changes. We also get deep about her challenges as such a realized young women to have friends her age who are age-appropriately still finding themselves and don't always share the same experiences.

Brian Andrew Whitely installed a Donald Trump tombstone in Central Park that took him on a trip with reality, ie: the authorities, FBI, the media, death threat phone calls, that I don't think him, his wife and two children could have anticipated. If you know Brian casually, he's presents a stiff upper lip guy, but Dr. Lisa won't buy it and insists on digging deeper. Shout out to our mutual gallerist who recently exhibited the stone Christopher Stout! http://www.christopherstoutgallery.com/# #art #psychotherapy #brianandrewwhitely #christopherstout #trumptombstone #centralpark

Paddy Johnson brain child and machine behind AFC http://artfcity.com/ talks about what kind of person can get an entire ORIGINAL organization established in the art world of all places. We hear Paddy talk about the makeup of her entire focused family, (must be genetics!) and how she has developed a personal life and relationship with a great guy to round out her world. Hint: as a kid, Paddy once skipped 3 DAYS OF SCHOOL to finish a painting. #art #psychology #comedy #paddyjohnson #artfcity

MOST IMPORTANTLY- Don't miss this! http://www.cinderblockcomedyfestival.com/ I dragged the lovely and normally hilarious comic, Alison Klemp into a serious discussion that I've been wanting to have for a long time with a smart, aware woman who doesn't take shit. Alison has proved that in spades lately as she found herself in the middle of a Kurt Metzger/Michael Che/UCB rape all-media-platform fiasco. http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/news/a48046/kurt-metzger-rape-culture-amy-schumer-ucb/ The topics that I mulled over with Alison center around how I see women unconsciously feeding into the obstacles that I personally feel are getting in the way of women having more power in society. For example, how looks are tied up in women's self-esteem- I don't have answers-just questions. And that's where Alison comes in! More about Alison: http://www.alisonklemp.com/ Listen to Alison talking about "The Incident" on Kurt Metzger/Sherrod Small/Race Wars: https://soundcloud.com/racewars/old-wise-men

I notice from social media that Travis SD, author, journalist, playwright and stage performer is in an obscenely perfect relationship. Is this real—how'd he pull that off?? We learn that Travis got married and had children at a very young age-21! His passion for his work, like many creative people, has informed his life along the way. I think finding someone (in another creative field!) also passionate about her work has helped-along with maturity of course. I learned a lot here. What came our makes sense to me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trav_S.D. http://travsd.com/ A link to Travis' wife's , Carolyn Stewart's work: https://society6.com/cavigliascabinet

Comedian Evan Jones likes to get high so we eat pot cookies before this session. Even gives off the vibe that he's a bro, but he's SO not. He's weird and complexier than you would think. He's also crazy driven about doing comedy. And there's a great story in here about him performing comedy naked and the ridiculously unexpected consequences of it. https://twitter.com/frodeziac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BcOwdnC9xM

There will be a part 2 soon! TBD Here is the email exchange that Paul and I had on Friday, August 19, the day after our radio chat: Dear Paul- It's really been bugging me. In our Dr. Lisa session yesterday, I didn't get to find out how your sense of humor worked, what you were thinking or not thinking. And I never felt like I cracked the code of how human relationships work in your world. My sense is that you are truly rewarded by your many pursuits, but that they may have precluded deeper relationships with other people (romantic and otherwise). But wtf do I know, I have no training! I also think that your moving around a lot and feeling close and satisfied (A GREAT THING, mind you!) with the relationships with your sisters and your many talents may have kept you in an emotionally and intellectually satisfied place. I am left wondering how that affects you. What came to mind right after the show, for me, was I think I was trying to get a sense of your relationship with your mother and couldn't. That l

Funny, multi-talented performer, Kelly Dwyer and I focus on her interest in cutting down on drinking, but it's easy to see that it's hard for her considering her work takes place in bars and she often gets paid in drinks. I think a lot of people can relate to this dilemma and it's refreshing to heat Kelly address it directly and pretty much shame-free. GO KELLY! Check out this video she mentions-HILAR https://youtu.be/PYYRKqBACwU More about Kelly here: http://www.kellybdwyer.com/ #comedy #music #psychotherapy

Rachel Cleary is a fellow Radio Free Brooklyn host of the show, "Hear and Now with Rachel C.". Plus, she is the significant other of our co-founder, Robert Prichard. In our session, Rachel talks openly about her domestic abuse experience with her now ex-husband. Rachel generously is interested in sharing her story in the spirit of offering support to other domestic abuse victims and to help eliminate the shame that they might experience. Don't feel sorry for Rachel, though. It's well behind her now. Her life kicks ass and she's in a great relationship with Rob! http://radiofreebrooklyn.com/show/hear-and-now-with-rachel-c/

It was fun reminiscing about the newly recent "old days" in Bushwick and how things have changed. Deborah's path has taken her deeper into her work and less focused on running a space in Bushwick, culminating in her getting representation at Mike Weiss Gallery in Chelsea this coming February. It's inspiring to hear about the long road Deborah's been on and how she feels preparing for her solo show at a high-profile gallery. I did a psychotherapy session on Deborah Brown almost exactly three years ago—her background is not like any artist I know-her father was an advisor to President Carter! Listen here: https://soundcloud.com/drlisa-3/aib_7_22_deborah-brown-therapy-session-72213 http://www.mikeweissgallery.com/ #art

I was on vacation in Quebec so fellow RFB host took over the studio while I called in to do a therapy session with him. I think we got a lot done in a short time. Biff's folks just don't get what he does? What comedian that has parents that do, really? Their sudden move to Belize is what's brought this all into focus for Biff. http://radiofreebrooklyn.com/show/the-biff-lawson-experience/ #comedy #psychotherapy

I didn't realize how much David Henry Nobody Jr.'s work had advanced until I found out we were exhibiting again. A fascinating guest, David was from a more than likely conventional family and has really gone his own way. This discussion starts from his earlier work where he crashed parties and was photographed with many celebrities such as #HillaryClinton, #DonaldTrump and whole host of Supermodels—to his work today which has attracted over 34,000 Instagram followers. https://www.instagram.com/davidhenrynobodyjr/ http://www.davidhenrybrownjr.com/