36 Comments

1. Karen McNally on February 26, 2012 at 2:17 pm

   Today on The Tobolowsky Files, you referred to people with Down Syndrome as patients. Really? Were they sick?
   Down Syndrome is not a disease. It is a genetic condition with a wide range of symptoms, mild to severe. Many may have physical or mental limitations, but people with Down Symdrome now live long lives and may be independent and productive citizens.

   Reply
   • Stephen Tobolowsky on April 23, 2012 at 2:08 pm

     Dear Karen
     I thought I had replied but the website has this listed that I didn’t. Forgive me. I know that people with down syndrome are not “ill”. Technically, the people who came to the Bob Darnell Fan club were patients. They came from a “home” with a nurse. Between you and me, I am not sure they were sick with anything but neglect. They had been sent to this facility by family members. They seemed healthy to me. But they were patients. It was a poor choice of words on my part even though it was technically correct.

     Stephen Tobolowsky

     Reply
2. Nick on May 20, 2012 at 3:23 pm

   Wow, Karen. Why can’t you just let the story take your mind to another persons point of view and walk away with a different perspective.

   Stephen, I think your stories are humbling, funny, happy, and sad. Your stories reflect human emotions and experiences in a masterfull way. Keep doing this. Thank you.

   I apologize to everyone I offend, but not to people who are offended.

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3. Rebecca on June 20, 2012 at 7:25 am

   Thank you so much for posting this playlist! I am mainlining your podcasts after getting them recommended to me by a friend and am finding so much interesting new (to me) music as well as enjoying your stories immensely.

   The song that really blew me away is not listed, though! What is the fantastic jazz number at the beginning of the special episode of Oct 14 2011 (between eps 51 and 52)? It sounds so familiar, yet I can’t place it…

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   • Stephen Tobolowsky on July 8, 2012 at 4:03 pm

     Rebecca, do you remember what that episode was about? I’m a bit mystified which one you could be referring to.

     Stephen

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     • Rebecca on July 9, 2012 at 9:14 pm

       You sounded like you had a cold in this episode, which started out with David introducing you as the man who played yourself in STBP. It wasn’t a full episode – announcements about coming to Boston in Nov 2011 and Seattle Jan 2012 and you shared a story you were currently writing that was going to be in a textbook. The story was about you being stuck in a long line of parked cars outside a basketball game, being attacked by a moth, and yelling at both them and it. 🙂

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4. Jim Hart on July 28, 2012 at 2:25 pm

   I would love to know which episode number is the one where you’re in the convenience store and the guy looking for mangoes decides to hold you hostage. It was the first one I heard and now I’m hooked.
   You’re a wonderful story-teller and I tell everyone I know. Thanks so much.

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   • Stephen Tobolowsky on July 28, 2012 at 5:54 pm

     Dear Jim
     That episode is Light of the First Day – Episode 51. It is downloadable on Itunes and at slashfilm.com

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5. RickyF on October 5, 2012 at 4:05 am

   Best story telling since William Shakespeare. Love your podcast. Thanks.

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6. stephen b. on October 19, 2012 at 9:18 pm

   Stephen! hey… found about about the files a few weeks late… i listen to KTCK in dallas, but from southern new jersey, so, the is a slight lag and i started listening in between when episode 58 was put up and the first 50 were vanished.

   how could someone get their ears on the first 50 episodes?

   love,
   Stephen

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   • Stephen Tobolowsky on October 20, 2012 at 7:12 am

     Stephen I am posting info on the first 50 podcasts soon. David Chen and I have taken them down temporarily. They hopefully will be remade as a national radio show…also free. more to come.

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     • rickyfr on October 20, 2012 at 7:17 am

       That is great to read. I have listened to all the podcasts that are available. I find it interesting to hear you tell the same story, like your hostage ordeal, in different ways. Looking forward to podcasts 2-49. I was able to find number 1 online somewhere.

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7. stephen b. on October 19, 2012 at 9:21 pm

   ps… shame about big tex today.

   Reply
8. Skip Hunt on November 13, 2012 at 7:10 am

   I just got hooked on your excellent podcast & have never spent so much time looking for remnants of your first 50. Please put them back up! They are perfect as is… No need to remake. Sad I discovered them too late. 🙁

   Why can’t you leave them up at least until the remade ones are finished?

   Also, are the stories in your new book Dangerous Animals Club taken from the Tobolowsky Files? Or, completely different?

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   • Stephen Tobolowsky on November 13, 2012 at 8:59 am

     Dear Skip,

     So happy you liked the podcasts. The reason they are being remade is not because we felt they needed to be redone. It is a matter of the audience. The podcast reached several thousand listeners. Through PRI the stories can potentially reach hundreds of thousands of listeners. To do that the podcasts have to be redone in PRI format. This has risks and benefits. The PRI format requires the shows be an hour long. That means there has to be new material. Hopefully the new material will be enjoyable. The first four we have done are very good. Hopefully, if we are successful, the quality will remain high. The book Dangerous Animals Club centers around the material in the first 25 podcasts. The stories have been shaped so they work in written form. There is also new material in the stories that are not in the podcasts. So roughly, the first 25 podcasts ARE available in the audio book form as well, with the new material included.

     For now, both Simon & Schuster and PRI have invested their time and money to produce, so in agreement with them, the old podcasts are not available in deference to their efforts. This may change in the future, and we expect all the podcasts to be available again in one form or another.

     Hope this helps!

     Stephen

     Reply
9. Skip Hunt on November 13, 2012 at 8:53 pm

   All makes sense. You’re an excellent storyteller and beyond that… your subtle lessons embedded are nothing short of sagely. Just what I need right now. I normally wouldn’t have gone to so much trouble scouring Google for perhaps some links to the first 50 that slipped through the cracks before the plug was pulled, but they’re just that good.

   Thanks for the explanation and I’ll have to just be patient for the PRI versions. Will check out the book in the interim. Any estimate on when PRI will be releasing the new stuff?

   You have a new fan 🙂

   Reply
10. chuckitb on December 25, 2012 at 12:06 pm

    I sometimes catch glimpses of a story on the radio, then I can’t seem to remember where I heard it, but I know it was a Tobolowsky story. I just heard part of a story while driving to work the other day, about a fruitcake which travelled around the world, only to come back to the recipient who steamed it and served it to a very skeptical dinner crowd. It was hilarious and now I can’t find this podcast anywhere! Please help. Was this a podcast? Was it an interview? If it’s online I’d love to send this story to a friend. Always funny, funny stuff. Thank you for these stories.

    Reply
    • Stephen Tobolowsky on December 25, 2012 at 5:22 pm

      Dear Chuck
      I don’t believe the fruit cake story was mine. Sounds hilarious though.

      Reply
11. Joseph on January 23, 2013 at 12:25 pm

    This really is disappointing, as I was happily going through the podcast and enjoying it very much, and now I am stuck at episode 35 with no way to get from there to episode 50 except the vague promise that the missing 14 episodes will be available in some form some day.

    Oh well, I guess I’ll just let this podcast go and move on to ones that aren’t restricting access to their own archives. Thanks for 36 enjoyable episodes.

    Reply
    • Stephen Tobolowsky on January 23, 2013 at 1:05 pm

      Dear Joseph I understand your frustration. It is contractual on our part…both with Simon and Schuster and PRI. Next podcasts will start coming out in a couple of weeks.

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      • rickyfr on January 23, 2013 at 1:45 pm

        Please sign a more fan-friendly contract next time.

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        • Stephen Tobolowsky on January 23, 2013 at 3:42 pm

          Dear Ricky, I have talked to several of the powers that be and it appears to be an industry-wide effort to deal with the problems of new media running into old media. I am talking over options for the future with all sorts of folks who are more informed than myself to keep their being problems like this in the future.

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      • Joseph on January 23, 2013 at 2:18 pm

        It’s your work so you can do what you want with it, and I’m glad you’ve found a way to make some money off them, but:

        Other podcasts have managed to enter into commercial expansions without blocking access to the listeners who helped build the momentum that got you there.

        You’re a great storyteller and I wish you much success with this new phase in your career. I hope you go far with it. But this decision still seems to me (I’m sorry, I don’t know how else to say it) a dick move.

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12. Stephen Tobolowsky on January 23, 2013 at 3:37 pm

    Dear Joseph, the joke is that I am not making any money off of it – nor was that the intention of the contracts. The contracts were to be insure that I would do the audio version of my book – not someone else (which I did for scale – which means no money!) I think the difficulty I have had will either go away or will be the sign of the times. Marc Maron may run into the same problem. We shall see. At any rate I am writing new stories that will be out soon.

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13. Joe K on February 11, 2013 at 7:44 am

    Stephen- great stuff here, keep up the good work. Radio will live on with great programming like this.

    Can you help me locate an episode- i only caught part of it and am dying to hear the rest. Its the one about your vocal chord surgery/accident in Iceland.

    Reply
    • Stephen Tobolowsky on February 11, 2013 at 9:37 am

      Dear Joe. The way I understand that the story is streaming on demand right now. Google”the Afflictions of Love” and see where you can listen.

      Reply
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    Reply
15. Tim on May 23, 2013 at 10:30 am

    Stephen,
    I’m an architect recently moved away from dear NYC, and I love reading to my kids, so many of your stories touch the right nerves. Have you written up somewhere your method for turning your interesting life’s events into compelling stories? How do you identify what and when to foreshadow – you do that wonderfully. Can you feel when you’re writing whats going to work? I’ve always wondered how a good storyteller figures that out.
    Keep Podcasting!
    Tim

    Reply
    • Stephen Tobolowsky on May 23, 2013 at 11:58 am

      Dear Tim
      I usually know what story I want to tell. I work other stories into it sort of using my right brain. Before I finish I have to consider how I want to tie it together. There are usually several ways I can do this. I sort of sleep on it and see what comes to the surface. It is very much a tug of war between planning and instinct. Keeping my fingers crossed also helps.
      Stephen

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16. Tommy on July 18, 2013 at 5:10 pm

    Dear Mr. Tobolowsky,

    Long time fan, thank you for all the entertainment you have given us over the years. I have recently started re-watching Deadwood and recall a “Tobolowsky Files” episode that discuss that including David Milch. I can’t for the life of me remember what episode that was….

    Anyway, thank you again and have a wonderful day.

    Tommy
    Japan

    Reply
17. Stephen Tobolowsky on April 18, 2014 at 2:52 pm

    Hi Tommy,

    Sorry to be so late answering, but the episode about David and Deadwood is The Sound of Surprise, episode 12.

    Stephen

    Reply
    • John T. Baker on April 19, 2014 at 3:49 am

      Hi Stephen,

      No worries at all and thank you.  It’s cued up in my ipod for my commute to work in Tokyo!

      Thanks for all the joy and entertainment you provide to everyone.  We really do appreciate it.

      Best,

      Tom

      Reply
18. Paul Smith on August 30, 2015 at 2:19 pm

    Hi Stephen,

    At the Fringe (Sat 29th August), you spoke outside of a date possibly in London in November. Hopefully it would be on a Saturday evening so we can plan to come down and see you again – and can I be cheeky enough to ask if I can claim some travel and B&B expenses from you this time! Expensive going up to Edinburgh, but more bloody expensive coming down to London!
    Love the podcasts (at normal speed ofcourse), you make a small memorial stonemason in Yorkshire very happy with your stories – hopefully a Podcast section on some Edinburgh stories will come later?

    Paul & Helen

    Reply
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20. David Keneipp on April 26, 2017 at 2:35 pm

    Stephen,
    Love the podcast (and the books). As a contemporary of yours in the Theater Department, the stories about the SMU years resonate the most strongly. Could be a story about Hob, or Beth, or Greg Grove–doesn’t matter. The vividness of the storytelling puts me right back in Dallas. Now, with episode 73, I learn of another way our experiences have crossed. I went to high school with Colleen Dodson! We knew each other fairly well; I think we were even in a couple of shows together.

    Sidebar (to borrow a technique of yours): Colleen’s mother was a fantastic seamstress. While the rest of the cast was wearing the typical rented costumes that all high school performers have to endure, Colleen was wearing incredible outfits designed and produced by her mother. The rest of us were just floored when we first saw them at dress rehearsal.

    BTW, still waiting for a Dick Ayers story…

    Reply
    • Stephen Tobolowsky on April 29, 2017 at 10:24 am

      David, I had a happy Dick Ayers sighting in Hot Springs Arkansas!! I was there for the film fest which was screening the film David Chen and I made, The Primary instinct. Dick was there with his daughter. It was wonderful. We adjourned to an empty room in the festival area and relived some old times. Dick was still very handsome. Had all of his hair and his sense of humor.

      Reply