Exciting news from LA: The Depressed Comedian episode of my Mental Ideas Podcast has been officially selected by the Cinemonic Entertainment Core for their 2021 Cinemonic Podcast Festival! I explore why depression is no laughing matter (or is it?) with American cartoonist Larry Feign, best known in Hong Kong as the creator of the Lily Wong cartoon strip. The festival takes place Dec 15, 2021 at 7.30pm, LA time. Mental Ideas returns to RTHK in 2022 as a weekly strand of the 123 Show!
Tag: Mental Ideas Podcast
Proverse Autumn Reception Nov 18!
I had a blast attending Proverse Publishing‘s Autumn Reception at the Helena May last Thursday, mixing and mingling with the winners and finalists of the 2021 Proverse Poetry Prize! Congrats to all and to Proverse for organizing such a fun event! I’m also excited to be interviewing a couple of them for my next series of Mental Ideas, which will broadcast in 2022. S2 explores the relationship between mental health and imagination in a psychedelic way! First up is the incredible Vishal Nanda, who blew me away with his lively speech and inspired poetry book Please Stand Back From The Platform Door. Vishal is a fellow ‘bipolar bear’ (as he signed his book to me), but I’m certain that’s the least interesting thing about him. He is donating ticket sales from his upcoming book launch on Dec 8 to mental health charity Mind. Don’t miss it!!!
Plan a Trip on VYP!
Staycationers take note: you don’t need to travel to plan a trip. Why not torture your ears with my psychedelic poem instead? War of Voices has just landed on the Voice Your Passion poetry channel! Thanks to wordsmith extraordinaire Dr. Ahmed Elbeshlawy for the kind introduction and for inviting me to read! His latest poetry book, Unappeasable Ghosts, is a precious gem and I can’t WAIT to interview him on S2 of Mental Ideas soon! The new series explores the mercurial relationship between mental health and imagination.
You can listen to me reading War of Voices for VYP below and buy the poetry anthology in which the poem was first published here! All the other poets on the channel are phenomenal so please don’t forget to subscribe!!! And if poetry’s not your vibe, Sharp Pains will be debuting on VYP from Nov 18 in weekly episodes! That should sufficiently lower the tone! 🤣
Catch me on VYP Oct 18!
War of Voices will be on the Voice Your Passion poetry channel on YouTube Oct 18! Thanks to Dr. Ahmed Elbeshlawy for inviting me to read and for sending me his latest poetry book, Unappeasable Ghosts. Looking forward to interviewing Ahmed on S2 of Mental Ideas soon, which is shaping up to be a cracker with a stellar line-up of guests! This time the focus is on the mercurial, symbiotic relationship between mental health and imagination.
You can listen to me reading War of Voices for VYP below and buy the poetry anthology in which the poem was first published here!
Mental Love Stories!
Catch me hosting Mental Ideas spinoff Mental Love Stories on RTHK Radio 3 with the brilliant Noreen Mir! The weekly strand celebrates unusual love stories and explores the impact of the pandemic on relationships and mental health. The guest list is now almost complete and TBA soon! Catch up on Series 1 of Mental Ideas HERE!
Catch Me Talking Happy Homes and Home Kong Kitchen on the 123 Show!
Excited to be joining the brilliant Noreen Mir on RTHK Radio 3‘s 123 Show talking about Home Kong Kitchen, which recently celebrated its first birthday and received a Happy Homes Award from the Mission For Migrant Workers!
Meanwhile, catch me performing my regular humour column Sharp Pains (the last episode was rather timely and aptly called Bake Fail) and get ready for the return of Mental Ideas on RTHK Radio 3!
Mental Ideas S2!
Series 2 of my Mental Ideas Podcast (Oddcast??) will be back on the air @ RTHK Radio 3 in weekly episodes with a new twist, a live studio format and an electric mix of local and international guests in 2022!
The new series explores the impact of mental health on relationships in a humorously irreverent, offbeat, poignant & uplifting way. Meanwhile, stay tuned for news of S1’s release on other platforms and a sponsored TV spin-off! ✌️
Happy As Larry
Larry Feign, my guest in The Depressed Comedian episode of my Mental Ideas Podcast (clip of us yakking @ The AIBs below), has a new book coming out June 28! Instead of being The Depressed Comedian, he is now officially Happy As Larry.
Larry is bestselling author of some 15 comic books and children’s book series The Fart Brothers, the latter of which he wrote under the pseudonym MD Whalen (until I outed him on air). Presumably, he feared it was a stinker. The Flower Boat Girl is his first historical fiction novel and the culmination of over a decade’s work. You can preorder the book on Amazon and read the first rave review of it here! 🙌
Miss Adventure in Rantings of a Madman!
I’ve made it into somebody else’s book!! It’s by Dan Davies, has just been published and is called The Rantings of a Madman on Facebook.
I am flattered to be mentioned in a few of his rants after casting him, aged 53, as a 16 year old boy in Miss Adventure meets Motorhead, which was shown on Funny or Die. Thanks to Chicago radio hosts WC Turck and Kerri Kendall for reminding me of our madcap little escapade gatecrashing a Motorhead gig @ Madison Square Garden in their preamble to an interview with Dan about the book last week!
Dan has experienced international success as an actor and screenwriter. He was a recurring guest in the Trolls Anonymous & Death & The Frozen Tundra episodes of S1 of my Mental Ideas Podcast and will be back again in S2! His debut book is really quirky, funny and the first in a trilogy based on his Facebook rants from 2008 to the present day. Enjoy!
Bipolar My Way – SCMP
Thanks to South China Morning Post journo Anthea Rowan for featuring me in her article exploring the stormy creative highs and lows of bipolar disorder in Monday’s SCMP!
Thanks to SCMP photographer Antony Dickson for an hilarious impromptu photoshoot on my roof, where for no particular reason (other than the weather was nice) we decided to recreate classic scenes from two of my favorite movies with my new poo Mojo Hobo Kaye!
RTHK's Miss Adventure 香港電台冒險小姐 