It’s the first episode of The JV Club with Janet Varney! Throw on your tunic and Birkenstocks for a chat about small towns, the fierce passion of Celine Dion, and the importance of special effects in high school stage productions of Agnes of God.
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Holy crap I’m from Twin Falls and watch jump company growing up. I graduated from twin falls high and this pod cast Just blew my mind. I’m a huge fan Janet! And I’ll keep listening!
It’s very weird hearing someone else talk about my high school days. I have, fwiw, used those stage combat rolls… lol
We said it at the time, if any of us was going to make it as an actor, it’d be Christina, so I was only a little surprised the first time I saw her on my tv.
OK, now I have to hear Janet’s impression of Céline Dion. Or Christina Hendricks’…
Interesting how Christina omitted the fact that she dated Anthony Kiedis of the REd Hot Chilipeppers.
Let me preface this with, I haven’t seen Mad Men, and have very little knowledge of Christina Hendricks and her work. Now, I have to say, I really enjoyed this conversation. And I actually liked JV’s interjections. But I am probably biased, since I live in Tucson, had no idea she was from here, and was excited to hear Janet reference 4th Ave, which instantly brought two questions to mind- which high school did she attend? And when did she graduate?
Podcast are just (hopefully) informal conversations (the ones I enjoy, anyway), and all conversations have a give and take. So I hope JV shares some of her own background and experiences, when the topics and situation calls for it. I’ve only listened to 3 episodes so far and as a guy I’ve not been turned away by the girl talk aspect, if there is any to begin with.
Keep ’em coming, JV.
Wow. This was incredibly boring. I love Christina Hendricks, but this was painful. The WORST part was listening to Janet’s comments more than Christina’s. I couldn’t finish….
Oh the things that happened in high school
LOVE this podcast. You’re a pleasure to listen to and the interview was so much fun to listen to. The creative clothing phase really resonated with me. I used to raid the men’s department at the Salvation Army for fashion inspiration – thought I was a genius the day I threaded ribbon through the laces of my men’s wingtips to feminize them. Oh, and my goth days included black lipstick and red lipliner as eyeliner. Hot. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! 🙂
I was looking through new nerdist industry podcasts do discover to while away the many droll hours at my office job and am very glad I stumbled on to this one. I’ve listened to this one about twice and the last 10 minutes about 20 odd times. I’m making a big move from PA to Portland and while there’s obviously no show biz reason behind it still feel the need to develop the confidence to JUST GO. It’s a huge move and there’s nothing really wrong with home, I just don’t want to feel stuck here just because my parents decided to settle here 20 something years ago. So thank you for that confidence and helping me to see I need to be on my own side. 🙂
As far as the way the podcast is laid out with the back and forth: it is one of the things I do like with podcasts like nerdist. It’s not just host question, guest answer but more like you’re dropping in on a conversation. There are some times where its more like “okay, I get it”. But then you’ve also gotta remember that the guest is a regular person and most regular people dislike going at length about themselves constantly without any feedback from the host. I noticed this in the nerdist David Tennant episode. Okay enough with this. Thank you JV and keep up the good work! 🙂
Great first episode Janet. Don’t listen to Terry Gross, don’t do anything like her, she’s great if you are 65+ years old but horrific for just about anything else – she has the personality of a piece of remoistened stale toast. You are doing great, keep them coming, keep your personality and interests guiding the show.
Hey Guys! I don’t know if anyone will ever read this, but I wanted to quickly acknowledge all the great comments, as well as the criticisms. Thanks for the encouragement! It was one of the first episodes I ever recorded and I definitely had to learn not to overtalk and throw in so many verbal acknowledgements (a lot of us do this in normal conversation and then discover it’s distracting in an audio interview!). And most future episodes have way less of me yakking about my own life. Anyway, hope you’ll hang in there with me! I love podcasting!
What a lovely, candid, honest conversation. It is such a privilege to be able to “eavesdrop” on a discussion that we’d otherwise never hear. There were several memorable parts that have really stuck with me, such as the lingering goth camaraderie, getting so much negative attention when you’re just doing your job, and struggles with big life changes such as moving and starting a new career. It was like spending an hour with two big sisters I never had.
Fantastic first episode. Keep up the awesome work, Janet and ignore the nay-sayers.
you know what, I’m the idiot here. Let me just preface my statement with that. I am insanely attracted to Christina Hendricks and clicked on the podcast for that reason alone. I was very disappointing to find out that the podcast wasnt a 2 hour dialogue about her large breasts. Not that I was expecting that, just dissapointed that it wasnt. weird right?
I haven’t listened to the show yet, but if you do want some chat from Christina about her being a bit of a geek girl and some talk about Firefly then you might want to check out an old Geekson podcast with her on it. Her brother is one of the founders of the podcast, and in that episode they also had Lisa Lassek on, someone who edits for Joss Whedon often. You can find the pocast here:
http://www.geekson.com/archives/archiveepisodes/2005/episode092605.htm
I haven’t had a chance to hear it yet, but I know it’s going to be great. This is so exciting Janet. I’ve shared it on my FB Page.
I concur a little with how there should be a balance of back-and-forth, with the guest having the majority of the speaking,, but it sounds like you had a lot of fun, and it was enjoyable.
Janet seems likeable enough but she has to remember this show is supposed to be about the guest, not the host. She kept bringing the story back to her and interjecting Christina. I think you need to work on your listening skills. Listen to some Terry Gross to see how it’s done.
As a fan of both Varney and Hendricks, I enjoyed this, and was amused to learn that Hendricks was a few years “behind” my bother, across town at Robinson HS rather than at Fairfax HS, while I was finishing up my BA down the street at Geo. Mason U. And as someone on the fringe of the punk scene among other musical happenings in DC at the time, it was also amusing to be reminded of the straight-edge kids in uniform, Krsna-conscious or otherwise.
Looking forward to the future episodes.
I’m not usually into girl-talk stuff, but I found this really enjoyable. If you’re looking for a conversation about Firefly, then you’re at the wrong podcast, obviously, because the description clearly says the premise is a conversation with someone about their high school years. Anyway, I thought it was a great conversation! Keep it going.
Awesome damn show, would be even better as a videocast. Cannot wait for the next one. You do know that Céline is an alien hybrid right?
I think I would enjoy more this podcast if it was a video-podcast.
I am a boy and I found this podcast to be DELIGHTFUL. I really liked your style, Janet. Christina is so pleasant! I was surprised to find out she was goth. It only made me like her even more. This was great, can’t wait to see who some future guests are!
I just finished listening to this episode and I have to say I really enjoyed it. It was great conversation. I been a fan of Christina’s work since Firefly and it was great to get find out that she is a really awesome person too.
The JV Club fits in to the tone of the Nerdist podcast and I look forward to future episodes.
Keep up the good work
None of which, I should have said, has any bearing on her musical talents. She’s got an incredible voice, and exudes sincerity, even if I like to snark about her being schmaltzy.
I think the difference between Céline and someone like Lady Gaga is that Gaga has a carefully constructed image, while Céline just has fashion sense is so bad that it circles around and seems ‘bold’ again. She’s like George Lucas. No one is going to say *no* to her ideas, which is why there were camels at the renewal of her wedding vows.
She’s a walking definition of the word kétaine.
I didn’t finish this podcast either. Too much host and not enough guest to keep my interest. Also, Janet’s tendency to toss “Uh huh”s and “Yeah”s over Christina’s answers was irritating to the point of distraction. As was her tendency to talk over Christina’s answers in general. Just my opinion. YMMV.
JV,
You go girl!
I might have to agree with Aaron on this one. He gave it a shot, he was direct about it and he did say it wasn’t his thing. As supposedly “insulting comments” go, this isn’t bad at all. However, this is the first episode of JV Club so anything can happen.
😀 I enjoyed the small stuff that Janet has done in the Nerdcast and the PMC podcast that I heard ages after those nerdcast episodes went up. I’ll give this a shot like I did Riki’s podcast; chose only the guests that I liked, download the others because I’m OCD (or something) and enjoying those episodes infrequently. I can always stop downloading things if it’s not for me.
Really great! Loved the show. Really personal and moving stuff.
I bet you’re a really cool guy, Aaron. Keep up the good work with those totally necessary comment posts.
That’s that new thing called sarcasm, right. Never heard that before. You’re the first. No, really.
The post was a plea to request Christina appear on the Nerdist podcast. So it was, in fact, necessary.
Also “Hi, pot. I’m Kettle” much?
Congratulations on your new podcast, Janet!
Love it!! Who knew!
Sounds great! So casual & fun-feels like I’m listening in on a chat with girlfriends. Janet has ‘it’ – whatever ‘it’ is….
xo,
Jerilyn @ The Because Show podcast
I couldn’t finish this. It sounds like high school girl banter. No offense and sorry, but I thought I’d give it a shot because of Christina.
This podcast clearly is geared towards girls, which I am not. I gave it a shot because I was hoping for some Firefly discussion, but I realize by the forum of this podcast that was only optimistic hope. I know Hardwick and gang would love to geek out with the girl who played Saffron on Firefly. If she’s a friend of yours, please ask if she’d want to be on their podcast.
Keep doing your thing… just not my cup of tea.
This was awesome!
The last three dollars story made me love Christina Hendricks even more.
Great first one. Congrats!
What a way to start a podcast!!! WOW!
Wow !
Christina Hendricks
NICE!
Christina Hendricks?!
Now there’s a way to rope people in to your first episode.