{"podcast":{"title":"Ian Talks Comedy","slug":"ian-talks-comedy-140290","podcast_index_feed_id":140290,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/21d579e4/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ian-fermaglich","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded/5576385/5576385-1589847499688-96aa14b6ccf94.jpg","author":"Ian Fermaglich","episode_count":330,"summary":"Join NYC teacher and former stand up comedian Ian Fermaglich as he talks comedy with some of comedy's best.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-28T12:18:37.346010+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ian-talks-comedy-140290"},"episode":{"title":"Ross Shafer (Almost Live!/Late Show/Match Game)","slug":"ross-shafer-almost-live-late-show-match-game","published_at":"2026-05-23T13:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ian-talks-comedy-140290/ross-shafer-almost-live-late-show-match-game","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ian-talks-comedy-140290","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ian-fermaglich/episodes/Ross-Shafer-Almost-Live-Late-ShowMatch-Game-e3jn9fi","audio_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/21d579e4/podcast/play/120349618/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-4-21%2F5066a9e0-71e0-c1ca-c92d-eed7a3ab6a12.mp3","summary":"Ross Shafer joined me to talk about watching Rusty Nails as a kid; flipping bikes, cars, houses, and businesses; college football; owning a stereo / pet store named Woofers and Tweeters; hamster drag racing; going to a comedy club when he had an ulcer; seeing there was a science there; trying it and getting good enough to win Showtimes Comedy Laugh Off; having a day job and not being able to move to LA; bombing on Alan Thicke's Canadian talk show; pitching Almost Live!; getting the show on the air on the fly; creating fame for little towns near Seattle; Louie, Louie campaign makes it a hit, but no one wants to syndicate; gets job to host Late Show but has to cancel remaining gigs; writers to Johnny Carson; Writer's Strike causes theme shows like TV reunions; Ozzy Osbourne; Hollywood Squares & Howard Stern; finding out Late Show is cancelled that morning; getting Match Game; memorable trip; Sally Struthers and Charles Nelson Reilly; Iraq War preempts show and ratings dive; began doing corporate gigs; his WOW versus POW theory; the book Love, Johnny by Mark Malkoff","meta_description":"Ross Shafer joined me to talk about watching Rusty Nails as a kid; flipping bikes, cars, houses, and businesses; college football; owning a stereo / pet s…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3598,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ian-talks-comedy-140290/episodes/ross-shafer-almost-live-late-show-match-game/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ian-talks-comedy-140290/ross-shafer-almost-live-late-show-match-game.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}