Left Hand Right Brain

Left Hand Right Brain is a comedy-and-arts conversation show in which comedian JD Lopez sits down with artists, comedians and friends to talk about making things, and about whatever comes up instead. It feels like hanging out, not like a formal interview. Guests land on the couch at what the host calls LHRB Studios, and the conversation works out its topic as it goes. The craft talk is real, but it tends to arrive sideways. With Tiffany Burke, introduced as an Austin comedian, it runs through The Artist's Way, morning pages, The War of Art and a swerve into The Art of War. With Evan Joe it starts with matching purple hoodies and spooky-season decorations and ends up at a story about doing tricks for crowds at fourteen and making more money than a kid reasonably should. That same conversation also covers a job at King Soopers, going to Philadelphia and the decision to chase comedy. Books, TV and other podcasts come up again and again. In a spooky-season conversation with Mallory Vining, the host's wife, Dracula becomes a portrait of 1890s England afraid of outsiders, and the talk wanders into The Gilded Age, Downton Abbey and the question of class. Ethan Everhart, welcomed back as an LHRB All-Star, is part of a talk that begins with an NPR pop culture podcast and ends at a defense of South Park and It's Always Sunny, on the grounds that their villains always get what's coming. That habit of turning a quibble over one word into a broader argument about what comedy is allowed to do is the show at its most recognizable. It also keeps an eye on its own history. A ten-year anniversary episode with Royce Roeswood traces the show back to early recordings in a basement and remembers a run of live episodes, along with past guests like Emily Grace King and her art full of little worlds and characters. Jack Comstock, Nebraska's own, returns roughly a decade after a first visit in the basement and gets teased about whether he can claim New York as the place he started. In that episode the host calls this the longest-running Denver-based comedy podcast. The warmth has room for heavier moments too: one episode begins with the host admitting to burnout after a hard year before he eases back in. Political opinions come out with little filter, and one sign-off turns into a blunt partisan tirade. The host usually closes with 'be excellent to each other', though guests are told they can sign off however they like. What a listener gets is less a masterclass than a seat in the room while comedians and artists compare notes on hustle, habit and the grind of making things. For the backstory, start with the anniversary episode; for the bookish side, try the Mallory Vining conversation.