Bill Barol
wrote and produced the podcast HOME: Stories From L.A. from 2015 to 2017. It won critical praise from outlets including The New York Times (“heartfelt and thoughtful”), Los Angeles Magazine (“a podcast for the ages”) and Boing Boing (“the best podcast about L.A.”), and its premiere episode, “The House On The Hill,” was named one of the 50 best podcast episodes of 2015 by The Atlantic. He’s the author of the books THANKS FOR KILLING ME (fiction; Minty Goodness Press, 2011) and MR. IRRESPONSIBLE’S BAD ADVICE (humor; Volt Press, 2005); he’s also a former Senior Writer at Newsweek, where he authored cover stories on David Letterman, Bruce Springsteen and Andrew Wyeth, as well as dozens of inside stories on pop culture, entertainment and the arts. His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Time, Slate, The Boston Globe, Fast Company, Fortune Small Business, Washington Journalism Review, American Journalism Review, American Heritage and TV Guide, at Boing Boing, Huffington Post and Forbes.com, and on PBS. He’s also been a writer/producer on television comedies including “Anything But Love,” “Cafe Americain” and “Townies,” and once sold a feature script to Disney and lived to tell about it. He lives in Santa Monica, CA. More: billbarol.com.
Photo: Jody Whittle-Wyeth
Mat Ricardo
is, according to The Scotsman, “undoubtedly one of the greatest variety artists working today.” His thirty-plus year career has seen him learn his craft as a street performer in London’s famous Covent Garden, before travelling the world’s theatres, cabaret clubs and festivals, advancing and redefining his artform to become one of the most critically acclaimed and successful speciality acts there is. He is, to quote the London Evening Standard, “breathtaking.”
His groundbreaking work merges physical and verbal comedy, storytelling, dance and, of course, his trademark spectacular feats of circus, magic and dexterity, all presented in a unique cocktail of cool, slick honesty.
He is the only variety artist to win the Herald Angel award for excellence in theatre. Additionally, he has won the inaugural British cabaret award for variety, the Kleinkunst cabaret prize, StageTalk magazine’s show of the year, and the ArtsAward pick of the fringe. He has performed cabaret in virtually every place where it can be performed, in all corners of the globe, including repeat residencies in such iconic venues as The Royal Albert Hall, The Savoy Hotel and Hollywood’s Magic Castle, and more than once, privately, for members of the British Royal Family.
His most recent one man show “Mat Ricardo vs The World” sold out every single performance at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe festival, while gaining faultlessly excellent reviews, which paved the way for an extensive UK tour in the autumn of that year. His previous solo theatre shows have had several sell-out runs in London’s West End, been showcased at the Purcell Room in the South Bank Centre as part of the London International Mime Festival, and toured to packed houses as far afield as Australia, South Korea, Finland, Germany and Belgium.
Alongside his performing work, he is a TEDx speaker, an ambassador for the mental health non-profit “Mental Ideas” and a co-host of the accompanying radio show. For two years he was a regular columnist for the British comedy website Chortle, writing about subjects as diverse as depression and creativity, gender, internet trolls and originality. He has also contributed pieces for Time Out, The Magic Circular and the Huffington Post, and still maintains his own widely-read blog. An experienced interviewer, Mat has chatted to some of the biggest stars of comedy and entertainment live on stage for the BBC, The National Theatre, and in several West End theatres.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Mat took his writing and performing to his YouTube channel, relishing the chance to grow a whole new audience on that platform.
He lives in Southend, UK. More: matricardo.com.