This is a podcast about all those jobs we've had that sucked. Each episode Brooks will interview a guest and find out what garbage they had to put up before they got to the position they're in now. Plus if you have any hellish jobs of your own you want to share email [email protected]
This is a podcast about all those jobs we've had that sucked. Each episode Brooks will interview a guest and find out what garbage they had to put up before they got to the position they're in now. Plus if you have any hellish jobs of your own you want to share email [email protected]
Tess Dong (artist) is my incredible 88 year old neighbor, but more importantly an amazing artist and gardener. She was kind enough to sit down and talk about her 60+ career in art while talking about immigrating to the United States when she was 14. This is one of my favorite interviews ever.
Below is how the MONA museum in Los Angeles’ write up on Tessie:
Tessie Dong was born in Canton, China. She moved to Arizona as a teenager and received an Associates of Art from Eastern Arizona College and later moved to Los Angeles for further study. She received her education at Art Center College of Design, specializing in commercial illustration. After photography grew in prominence as an advertising medium, Dong pivoted from illustrator to work in architectural model building. This attention to space and proximity to architects led her to propose monumental works, designed with architecture in mind. She conceived of and created large-scale architectural installations for banks, restaurants, tennis clubs, private homes and synagogues. The mediums she used ranged from batik canvases, painted dimensional murals, and multimedia sculptures. She is a skillful welder and glassblower who hand makes each element in her work, embracing the transformative capacities of color, light, and material. “I had to learn how to bend neon tubes in order to add them to my metal work so it’s integrated in the whole,” states Dong. Dong’s 20-foot tower Enlightenment is permanently installed at the Chinatown branch of the LA Public Library.
The second degree black belt in Shotokan Karate, avid gardener, and artist states “I keep on going.” Several years ago Tessie Dong was offered a large art commision the same week that she was diagnosed with cancer. The artist pushed through with the commission, secretly battling her diagnosis through studio sessions, chemotherapy, radiation, and naps. Every day she would move towards completing the work, promising herself she would not die before it was finished. “I almost died of cancer, but designing and completing my 24′ x 6’ x 2’ wall sculpture helped me to survive,” states Dong. The artist has been cancer free since.
Dong states, “My work is about interplay of space and form, of natural lines and industrial materials, of harmony and tension- it’s sometimes hard to delineate where my pieces start and stop and where work and life intersect. There is nothing about my world that is not part of a vast composition: My garden, my house, my studio, my life. They reflect the same symbiosis of organic chance and composition which typifies my evolving work.” Tessie Dong’s work has been exhibited internationally and she has participated in several museum exhibitions. Her work is held in various private and corporate collections.
“My art is a continual process. My goal is to design and create multi-media works for public and private spaces to enhance human communication through artistic media. I grow with each project and then apply my extended experience to each future work,” says Dong.
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Other Episodes
Episode 212: Hampton Yount #2
11/8/2021
Hampton Yount (Comedy Central/Netflix) returns to talk about comic books, pokemon cards, stand up comedy, and other pressing issues.
Check out Hampton's pilot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGopuhBm-uk
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Dave Ross (Comedy Central/James Corden) talks about working at Burger King, having a dad who was a commander in the Navy, and being a radio DJ.
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Mo Welch (Conan/Comedy Central) talks about gowing up as a carnie in central Illinois, detasseling corn as a 14 year old, scooping ice cream, taking a greyhound bus to Wyoming, and starting comedy during Denver's comedy boom. Check out Mo's conan set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc842VsJEVs Check out Mo's cartoon: https://www.instagram.com/momowelch/?hl=en Join the...
Nick Youssef (Comedy Central/Writer for Esquire) talks about how being a TOOL fan who got to hang out with TOOL, immigrating from Beruit to the United States, and working his way up at the Comedy Store. Follow Nick: https://twitter.com/NickYoussef Read Nick: https://www.esquire.com/author/11614/nick-youssef/ Join the patreon: https://www.patreon.com/entrylevelwithbrookswheelan Follow Summer on instagram...
Donnie Divanian (The Dress Up Gang/Comedy Central) talks about working in the vending machine world for a decade, being a tennis instructor for Bruce Willis’s daughter, and the podcast gets heckled from the street for the first time ever. Check out the Dress Up Gang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuePaFHcVFc Join the patreon: Patreon.com/entrylevelwithbrookswheelan...
Jessie Case (Jesse Vs. Cancer/Probably Science) talks about working at Subway on September 11, 2001 and having Jared come in to give a speech on that day.
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Chase Bernstein (Comedy Central/TruTV) gives us the details on working at In-N-Out, getting fired for not working for six full months, and what it's like to get a degree in magazine writing with no desire to actually pursue it. Check out Chase: https://www.instagram.com/chasebernstein Check out Chase's podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/composed/id1527362747 Join the...
Carmen Christopher (Joe Pera/Shrill/Seth Meyers) talks about going to the University of Iowa at the same time as Brooks, working in sales for 8 years, and growing up in Chicago. Check out Carmen's show if youre in LA: https://dice.fm/partner/brain-dead-llc/event/6vv73-carmen-christopher-street-special-live-23rd-sep-brain-dead-studios-los-angeles-tickets?dice_source=web&dice_medium=organic&dice_campaign=Brain+Dead%2C+LLC&_branch_match_id=889535494636933172 Go to Talkspace.com and enter promo code: BROOKS See omnystudio.com/listener for...
Giulia Rozzi (Comedy Central/Conan) talks about working at a Bruegger's Bagels thinking it was good, being a call person for the Life Alert company, being passed at The Comedy Store on accident, and working on every VH1 show in the 2000s. Check out Giulia: https://www.instagram.com/msgiuliarozzi/?hl=en Listen to GIulia's podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/should-i-get-bangs/id154785855...
MK Paulsen (Comedy Central) discusses selling chicken in a small Texas town, working politics in DC, and backpacking through Australia.
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