Dr. Lisa Gives A Sh*t

Penny Arcade is an icon. By that I mean she stands for something. Something important which involves being aware. She is also incredibly talented and entertaining. Penny travels a lot performing all over the world, but she is on the phone and not too far away, calling in from a residency at The Watermill Center  to talk to me in the studio. Her latest show Longing Lasts Longer, is a rock n’ roll blend of stand-up comedy and memoir which she has performed for the past 4 years, all around the world and is bringing it home to Joe's Pub. It's described as –  "An evening of dangerous ideas and radical inquiry into what it means to be human, right now! Right here!" Penny and I talk in depth about a lot of what's on her mind which are topics in the show, such as the failed promise of the internet, and the culture we live in. So much thinking here from someone who's traveled the world and seen it all. Penny's FABULOUS SHOW is at JOE'S PUB, Tues., Aug. 13, Tues., Aug. 20 and Tues., Aug. 27. Tickets $20 which is a b

My BFF of thirty years, bestselling author and professional tarot card reader, Margot Berwin reads my cards for the first time in two years. I want to find out from her/the cards how my art career is doing. I am frustrated with my career, like every other artist and in this session, I begin to see that it's not always my actual career, it's my emotional problems getting in my way, and things are much better than I have internalized. There's really good thinking about creative careers and a view into my blind spots. You likely have some of the same issues. I felt SO MUCH better after this session. Also, Margot sees a big opportunity  in store for me in October too, stay tuned. More about Margot here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/85206/margot-berwin https://www.margotreadstarot.com/ Get your cards read by Margot in person or electronic method of your choice: Skype, phone, Facetime, text, up to you! Set up an appointment: margot.berwin@gmail.com Don't let my haranging Willy Hartland, the call in g

Fresh off  her first in person live performance at an exclusive club in Montauk on July 4th weekend, artist Leah Schrager unloads about her experience (positive = exciting) performing for an unsuspecting audience at the $2000/lounge chair pool. Photos of her performance. Angles On A Woman HERE. Leah was on #DrLisaGivesAShit in 2016, and at that time we tried to make clear how hard it is for her work to be interpreted as art and photography. Once again I stress all of Leah’s achievements: her academic awards (B.A. Dance and B.S. Biology, summa cum laude, University of Washington, Seattle, high school valedictorian), numerous high profile dance performances such as with Martha Graham Dance company and her trade of choosing art over becoming a doctor. She has many options, people! She is not just trying to do this work for money, if you think so, you are missing the point! Her recent experience leads us to a discussion about the power/power struggle of women’s sexuality and more. It’s exciting to see Leah’s prog

Bring you own tissues!!!    This interview took place on July 11, a short time before artist/activist/photographer, Savannah Spirit’s 44th birthday which is a year to the date of her mother’s unexpected death at age 73. In this session, Savannah generously and openly articulates the experience she went through and the subsequent personal growth she, as well as her father and brother, have developed individually and as a family, going forward. A turning point for her is a meeting a friend takes her to in January of this past year. I think this episode will be a true gift to anyone who has or is currently experiencing grief or has a mission to grow as a human. Scroll down to read the notes from Savannah in preparing herself for this session. MORE ABOUT SAVANNAH and her work: https://savannahspirit.photography/ FOLLOW on Instagram- @savannahspirit.artist Savannah's Notes:  - My mom was my first champion cheerleader as an artist and photographer, always supportive of my projects and vision, when I lost her, I

Loren Munk is an amazing painter and art world chronicler. His art and videos are an amalgamation of art history. The well-known painter, Katherine Bradford said he deserves a MacArthur "Genius" Award and I wholeheartedly agree. As James Kalm, he’s had over 2 million views of his web series covering art, galleries, artists, openings and even some street musicians. There is so much to learn about this former Mormon from Utah. Loren was talented as a child but art didn’t come alive for him until he was stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army during the 70’s. Loren was a highly active part of the art world in the 80’s. He never quit, but the art world went through it’s paces and he and his wife, Kate, focused on bring up two boys. In the meantime Loren, reentered the art world with a vengeance. This is genuine inside scoop, folks. There’s even a discussion of, “What’s more important for an art career,-the work or the relationships?” Find out more about Loren and see his work here: http://www.lorenmunk.com/ Enjoy

In this episode I am away at an artist residency but I want to get in a session with my good friend, artist David Kramer, because his exhibition is opening at The Front Room gallery and I need to know what he is wearing there, (he didn't know). RFB host, Billy C of THE Attitude Adjustment Show and Cosmic Debris, runs the studio and chimes in while David is on the air. David is clearly excited about the show and happy with his work. We get a view of some of the behind the scenes antics involving a film made for the exhibition with the help of his film-school son, Martin's young friend, Sebastian, which ultimate leads to some unexpected father-son creative bonding.

Emily Frembgen is a talented singer/songwriter, so when I had to go out of town I had one of our music hosts, Gianluca Tramontana, with serious chops as a music journalist (among other things) sit in with her to great results. Great chemistry, personalities and best of all Emily's music - she brought her guitar. You can hear more of her work on Spotify as well. And you can listen to Gianluca's show, Sitting with Gianluca every Wednesday on Radio Free Brooklyn at 6pm, where he has made it his mission in life to get people to listen to his favorite music. He wants to leave you with that extra bit of knowledge so you can hear a familiar record in a completely different way.

Rachel Music (her real last name) is a multi-hyphenate creative. Currently her main focus is Schadenfrau, an emergent interdisciplinary studio dedicated to playful defiance, which she is the founder of.At only 28, she's gone through some serious sexual, emotional and physical abuse. But let's not forget Rachel is super multi-talented and hard working too. She details her journey in a straightforward manner. In all my years as a fake shrink, I don't think I've heard such strength and humor in how Rachel has confronted her demons head on and wrestled them to the ground. There's a great demonstration of how someone who you work with can heal you in a way that sometimes a friend or family can't because they see the side of you that's productive and talented first. This episode sounds heavy, but somehow there's a lightheartedness to it. Also, I found Rachel through this great interview in the Bushwick Daily.

George Tannenbaum was hired the same time I was in 1990, to be my copywriter-partner at a well-known (at the time) ad agency, Ally & Gargano, 1990-1995. I was an art director. We were both just past a solid start in our careers as creatives in advertising. George wound up being super-successful in advertising—he’s an Executive Creative Director and Copy Chief at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising and I wound up flunking out of that business that George still works in. In this episode, I coerce George into making a lot of this session into therapy about me, while putting George on the spot. I must say he’s a great sport about trying to help me resolve some difficult questions I still have about myself as a functioning adult in a workplace. It’s interesting to hear George’s take on our shared experiences, what George’s natural abilities are and how he’s succeeded in a highly cutthroat, competitive environment. George has a lot of his own great insights and anecdotes about working as a creative person in a corporat

Abby Ehmann was one of those "cool chicks" that everyone knew or was aware of, but my nerd lifestyle kept us from crossing East Village paths until now. Abby was at the helm of so many important and radical events. I was just about to write them in here, but there are too many so scroll down. Anyway Abby is in my age group she's almost 60, I'm 63. I identify with Abby now, or I would like to! I think it's because we're in the same age group, but both still as crazy as we were when we were younger. We've had some parallel paths in our lives, so I get to understand where we diverged (we both started out as creatives in advertising, never had kids) and what I missed because I don't have the balls she does. Her life is still more exciting right now because she has a new boyfriend who sounds like a dream, where I've been married since 2010. I am making up for lost time now though, cause I can hang at her bar that she opened 2 years ago on Ave.B, Lucky! BEST JUKEBOX anywhere because it's curated by Abby's friends.

00.00-00.30: Art critic/writer and now curator, Jillian Steinhauer hit a collective nerve with a powerfully meaningful exhibition she’s curated at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts titled In the Presence of Absence. The show is described briefly here by Mary Louise Schumacher, "When it comes to grief, our culture values the stiff upper lip. But stoic composure comes with a price. It keeps the realities at arm’s length, including truths about the erasure, enslavement and slaughter of Native Americans and Africans. A small show in New York, “In the Presence of Absence,” suggests that mourning may be a means of empowerment and a way through. It is a show that requires a certain openness, a bit of courage even, to experience." — Picking up on a line in exhibition statement from Jillian, it says, This exhibition is dedicated to Henrietta, Suzanne, and Bronia. We learn that two of these women are Jillian's grandmothers, and the third is her partners mother, who have all passed away in the past three years. Jil

Gianluca Tramontana, host of RFB's Sitting With Gianluca, (every Wed., 6pm) /https://radiofreebrooklyn.com/show/sitting-with-gianluca/ hangs with Meghan Taylor (lead vocals and Damian Eckstein (bass) of the band GIFTSHOP, while Dr. Lisa takes a vacation. http://www.giftshoptheband.com They are a fabulous and wildly popular band out of Astoria Queens and the music played on this show is not to be missed! Just so nothing is missing, Dr. Lisa prepares a phone interview write-up anyway, which you can read HERE: PSYCHOLOGICAL INTAKE REPORT from Dr. Lisa for GIFTSHOP, The Band Giftshop is an accomplished band. They have been around for 12 years, have produced 4 EP albums, available on all streaming platforms as well as some old school vinyl and CDs. They have professional representation and are members of the indie label Tarbeach Records. They have a dedicated following in Astoria, Queens and Manhattan which allows them to choose when and where they will play. Out of 5 musicians and 1 manager there are 2 marri

The first half of this session I spend time with 25 year old artist COLIN RADCLIFFE http://www.colinjradcliffe.com/ who is about to have a solo show at Equity Gallery in Manhattan. I am a huge fan of Colin’s so there is some fawning on my part which he handles well. Colin's work is particularly compelling because the emotional quality is so complex. Here are some adjectives: funny, quirky, weird, gross, beautiful, charming, repulsive, magical, pan-sexual, pan-racial (including/not limited to) races from other planets. His work is developed out of his personal relationships. DO NOT MISS his show!! Opening Reception for Colin J. Radcliffe’s Left on Read- Thursday, April 18th, 2019, 6- 8 PM http://www.nyartistsequity.org/ NOAH BECKER, accomplished multi-hyphenate painter, writer, saxophonist and founder and editor-in-chief of Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, an online contemporary art magazine. Noah joins us to talk about his series of Artist Parties on the rooftop of the Jane Hotel, sponsored by his ma

Kelsey Caine was my guest on the show 11.15.18, but she got to the RFB studio really late cause of a blizzard—we had a brief chat at that time and rescheduled her for today 3.27.19. Since that November day, Kelsey invented a new a inspired hit, polarizing character, Penis C K. where she… well… see it for yourself here: https://twitter.com/kelsey_caine/status/1035573794516160512?lang=en Kelsey tells us the story behind Penis C.K., including her experience of buying a “realistic” penis, and the joys and fallout of going on tour with this character. We also learn that Kelsey comes by this hilarious activism honestly as she describes a project she initiated at her old high school in Texas. https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/bellaire/news/article/St-Agnes-alumna-pushes-for-sexual-assault-12913306.php Kelsey’s original Dr. Lisa session from 11.15.18: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/drlisa/episodes/2018-12-23T10_50_45-08_00

This got fucked up—to hear my session with Alessandra Expósito, please start at the 28 minute mark. Alessandra is a terrific artist and does a lot of work with animal skulls (including chicken skulls!) https://alessandraexposito.com/ She also does therapy on stage, where SHE IS THE PATIENT. She brought her shrink with her so we had a talk with Alessandra as the patient with 2 shrinks: me plus her own personal shrink that she brought along. Fascinating! Besides talking a bit about her work, we find that Alessandra is a bit, well, OCD. Like she showers immediately after every subway ride. I love how she talks about it—it's her quirk and she's ok with it. Not embarrassed, not ashamed, she just simply owning it. And she's had a guy for 8 years that thinks she's adorable (which she is). So here's what I learned for myself — don't try to hide your annoying habits from your partner. You're going to be that way anyway and it's much easier for them if you are ok with your own weirdness. The less defensive and respon

Rebecca Major is a smart, highly original, shit together artist. Dr. Lisa plumbs her childhood experience of moving at 5 years old with her mother and 10 year old sister from Budapest, Hungary to NYC to live with a prominent, wildly avant-guard theater group, the Squat Theater (active in a large communal setting. Rebecca has since become an accomplished artist and grounded adult, but it couldn’t have been easy. We get a great vision of her experience and some of the effect it’s had on her life. More about Rebecca and her work here: http://www.rebeccamajor.com/ Learn about the Squat Theatre, an important part of NYC theater history: (From Wikipedia) Squat Theatre (1977–1991) was a Hungarian experimental theatre company from Budapest, which left Hungary for Paris, France, and then New York City, where they built a reputation for experimental theatre.[1][2] Originally, the Company was known as Kassák Haz Studió and was located at Uzsoki-utca 57, Budapest). For political and aesthetic reasons the Company emig

Five minutes before my show was to go live, I realized my guest wasn’t coming, so I called up my always entertaining friend, artist David Kramer and ragged on him for an hour. If you don’t know how mean I can be, well, listen to this. Kramer more than holds his own while we gossip about the art fairs in town. We find out what David’s working on, his upcoming solo exhibition in June at Front Room and whether or not he has stolen ideas from his 19 year old son, Martin who’s in film school. Here’s an video of David and Martin in therapy with me from 2007 when Martin was 9. Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B83RKYFUA0g More about David Kramer and his work here: https://davidkramer5000.com/

Ken Johnson started a project about 5 years ago titled Ball and Cone. http://ballandcone.tumblr.com/ Ball and Cone are simply the life and experiences of an anthropomorphized ball and an anthropomorphized cone duo in a comic style format. Ball and Cone have no sex or human identity, just one eye each, and they are adorably compelling and funny. They are very simple but explore questions and ideas that can be very complex, such as the meaning of existence and what is mirth? BUY THE BOOK here: https://www.amazon.com/Ball-Cone-Ken-Johnson/dp/1729735851/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1548880981&sr=8-15&keywords=ball+and+cone It was fascinating to talk with Ken about this work and the more than one thousand of drawings he's done for this project., the role it’s taken on in his daily life (he does about one a day) and the dialogue he has with his followers. I think the biggest surprise to me was to find out his largest audience is children, many from far-flung parts of the globe. The uniqueness in this work is how it ca

I am obsessed with the creative process which led me to becoming a fan of Jim Tews’s podcast "Quitting Comedy." http://www.jimtews.com/podcast.html He has great comedians talk about their career and process by starting with the premise : Have you ever thought of quitting comedy? Comedian Jim Tews learned a lot about discipline from his years in the Coast Guard which turned out instrumental in helping his personal development and managing his creativity productively. In this session with Jim, we learn about his less-than-typical, comedy career journey from being brought up in a blue collar family from Allentown, Pa. and being told by his guidance counselor in high school that he wasn’t “college material” to enlisting in the Coast Guard and making a successful comedy career for himself. It turns out being yelled at constantly is good for any creative career really. More about Jim here: http://www.jimtews.com/ and here: Jim Tews made his stand-up television debut on Last Comic Standing and was featured in

Rolf Arne Leer had an unusual upbringing which connects him intimately to outsiders. He is a highly creative, successful, HANDSOME guy who grew up on a farm in Norway that was also a center for mentally ill people. He is the 3rd generation to manage a facility where the working farm provides occupational therapy, housing and medical care for 16 patients at a time. Rolf and his sister were brought up with schizophrenic, bipolar patients, a Down syndrome woman, etc. https://www.quotedmagazine.com/ Quoted magazine is a glorious coffee table book style magazine that are spectacular profiles of 10 highly individualized New Yorkers, curated by Rolf and his staff. Together with Quoted Magazine’s brand Manager, Megan Davenport, Rolf takes us on a deep dive into his life growing up around the mentally ill as a daily part of life. His genuine love and compassion for these people was actually kinda moving to tears for this hard-boiled shrink that I am. I wish the life Rolf describes were available for all mentally tro