This week I talk to Comedy Estonia comedian Ann Vaida who will be doing her first solo show in December. We chat about creativity in her day job, how she writes Stand Up and her feeling as she approaches her first Stand Up hour. Follow Ann: https://www.instagram.com/annvaida Episode video: https://youtu.be/4TSmA7YIiD0 You might like some of the other things I do too Comedy Guy Podcast: https://anchor.fm/comedyguy Zez Retro Podcast: https://anchor.fm/zezretro Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran Zez Retro on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro Retro Shmups on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/louiszezeran

This week Tim and I make it into the studio after Tim's very rough week after getting a second dose. Tim's vax induced delirium Louis' Estonian lessons Why are there so many Australia entertainers in Estonia? Hipster Japanese brothels Video: https://youtu.be/IkaU6LIbncM Follow Tim: https://www.instagram.com/sexyhunk1988/ You might like some of the other things I do too Comedy Guy Podcast: https://anchor.fm/comedyguy Zez Retro Podcast: https://anchor.fm/zezretro Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran Zez Retro on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro Retro Shmups on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/louiszezeran

Martin and I are back and discussing what it is like when someone doesn't like your show. If it's a normal public show, if someone doesn't like it then mostly they are reasonable and accept its not for them and they just don't come back. However sometimes people REALLY don't like the show and demand their ticket money back. What do you do? Then we have the case when we are hired for a private party and the customer is not happy with the performance. We have a long list of questions we ask about the event to ensure we can do it correctly. However even with a good checklist, often we turn up on the day and something is wrong or off which we did not anticipate. Sometimes we can make adjustments in the moment but sometimes we just need to power through. If the customer isn't satisfied we need to take a detached view and stoically ask ourselves could we have asked more questions and done more prep or do we feel the customer had an incorrect expectation (which still makes it our fault for not setting the expectation correctly). Follow Ruutu10: https://www.instagram.com/ruutu10eesti/ You might like some of the other things I do too Comedy Guy Podcast: https://anchor.fm/comedyguy Zez Retro Podcast: https://anchor.fm/zezretro Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran Zez Retro on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro Retro Shmups on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/louiszezeran

In part 2 we hear from Tambet and Roger's side of our recent trip to the UK. What were their war stories about hitting the mics in London? How was that Glasgow crowd after all? What's up with Tambet's Scottish accent? Follow  Roger: https://www.instagram.com/rogerandre_ Tambet: https://www.instagram.com/tambetsild You might like some of the other things I do too Comedy Guy Podcast: https://anchor.fm/comedyguy Zez Retro Podcast: https://anchor.fm/zezretro Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran Zez Retro on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro Retro Shmups on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/louiszezeran

Tim and I are back from the UK and we tell stories of the times we had. Roger, Tambet, Ari and Oleg were all there, hutling for spots and prepping for Ari's Estonian show on the Saturday. After this Tim took Tambet and Oleg up to Scotland where they did gigs in Glasgow and tasted the fish and chips from the highlands. Follow Tim: https://www.instagram.com/sexyhunk1988 You might like some of the other things I do too Comedy Guy Podcast: https://anchor.fm/comedyguy Zez Retro Podcast: https://anchor.fm/zezretro Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran Zez Retro on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro Retro Shmups on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/louiszezeran

I was back in Vilnius last week and I caught up with my friend Dominykas Klajumas. Dom is a podcaster, content creator, radio host and Stand Up comedian with "Humoro Klubas" which is roughly like the Comedy Estonia of the south. After years as a well known comedian and radio host, Dom moved into podcasting and online content creation at the start of the pandemic and things have gone very well for him, with episodes now regularly getting hundreds of thousands of views. Wow that's a lot, I sometimes forget that Lithuania is three times the size of Estonia. We had a really fun talk about his career, developing a Stand Up scene and why Comedy Estonia definitly should not worry about the latest Tõnis Niinemets tour. Fun fact: In Lithuania, they are not allowed to show alcohol logos on camera at all. Even for podcasts. This is why Dom always drinks from a cup. When he told me about this my first reaction was "fuk da Lithuanian police" and I definiantly said we don't follow such backward rules in Estonia and I'll drink a beer loud and proud. The problem is now is that Dom probably can not distrubte this episode in Lithuania. Which is where most people know him :D Still, I was keeping my beer real. Follow Dominykas https://www.instagram.com/klajumas https://www.facebook.com/dominykas.klajumas You might like some of the other things I do too Comedy Guy Podcast: https://anchor.fm/comedyguy Zez Retro Podcast: https://anchor.fm/zezretro Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran Zez Retro on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro Retro Shmups on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/louiszezeran

I talk to Martin Rauam who is a former Estonian rally driver and now is a partner in JOLOS event and live communication agency. I know Martin from working with him on many events and I have always wanted to hear about his previous career as a rally drive back in the early 2000s which took him around Estonia and also for several seasons in the International leagues.  We have a good talk about how artists and sports people need to prepare for the transitions in their life when you need to move on. Either the "big goal" is achieved or the realities of life say "sorry you now can not do this thing you trained for and focused your whole life around". Rally and life as a sportsman is about the first hour. Then we switch up and talk about the current state of events in Estonia. Martin's agency JOLOS mostly focused on "corporate" events where Comedy Estonia is slinging tickets to public shows. We talk about the market place and whats the mood of companies and the public right now Learn more about JOLOS: https://jolos.eu/en Martin is also on the board of the Estonian Marketing Association: https://turundajateliit.ee/en You might like some of the other things I do too Zez Retro Podcast: https://anchor.fm/zezretro Comedy Guy Podcast: https://anchor.fm/comedyguy Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran Zez Retro on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro Retro Shmups on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/louiszezeran

This week Kaspar and I talk about comedy. The current state of Comedy Estonia, how to be a better host and what to make of all this showbiz stuff. Follow Kasper: https://www.instagram.com/kasparkikerpill You might like some of the other things I do too Zez Retro Podcast: https://anchor.fm/zezretro Comedy Guy Podcast: https://anchor.fm/comedyguy Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran Zez Retro on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro Retro Shmups on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/louiszezeran

My guest this week is Rainer Peterson, one of the hosts of the Estonian video games podcast Puhata ja mängida. We talk about running the podcast over the last 10 years, finding frustration with YouTube's treatment of Estonian and stories of how video games came to Estonia in the 90's. Follow Puhata ja mängida and Rainer https://puhatajamängida.ee https://www.youtube.com/user/puhatajamangida https://www.instagram.com/puhatajamangida https://www.instagram.com/pixelpez You might like some of the other things I do too Comedy Guy Podcast: https://anchor.fm/comedyguy Zez Retro Podcast: https://anchor.fm/zezretro Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran Zez Retro on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro Retro Shmups on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/louiszezeran

It has been a few months since Martin and I got together to talk comedy. In the meantime both Comedy Estonia and Ruutu10 have been doing lots of shows as we both try and get back into a rhythm of putting on events. * Ruutu10 "Barprov" shows * Ari Matti's tour going to London, Brussels and Helsinki * The difficulties in bringing an International improver to Estonia * Martin has a shiny new webshop Follow Ruutu10: https://www.instagram.com/ruutu10eesti Follow Martin: https://www.instagram.com/martin.junna You might like some of the other things I do too Comedy Guy Podcast: https://anchor.fm/comedyguy Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran Zez Retro on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro Retro Shmups on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/louiszezeran

The big issues of the day. Social issues. Things that matter. Opinions on important stuff. You won't find any of that in this episode. It's me and Tim and Tambet drinking Alexander and talking absolute nonsense. We do get into my Estonian lessons (why won't Tim go???) and at one stage Tim is selling the virtues of Viru Burger so hard we make a Bolt order to test it out. Is it really better than VLND? Truly the big issues of the day. It's the three of us having fun. Good craic as they say in Ireland.  Follow Tim: https://www.instagram.com/sexyhunk1988 Follow Tambet: https://www.instagram.com/tambetsild You might like some of the other things I do too  Comedy Guy Podcast: https://anchor.fm/comedyguy Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran Zez Retro on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro Retro Shmups on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/louiszezeran

Today my guests are Riina Ries and Tiina-Mall Vannastu from "Naked Love", which is an Estonian based lifestyle brand focusing on female sexual and body positivity. Or if you want be more direct, they sell vibrators. As the ladies explained to me, there are still many aspects of female sexuality which are taboo or just not spoken often about, particularly in Estonia. If a woman wants to find something to help her explore her sexuality while alone, the choices are going into some weird, seedy-ass looking sex store, or buying online and facing a mountain of different options with wildly different prices. The concept of Naked Love is to sell one product (at first), a vibrator which would be broadly appealing. It comes in nice packaging and they don't shy away from what they are selling, they present it visually and proudly. Their webshop is also an online portal for information about sexuality and body positivity. They have involved one of Estonians most renowned educators on sexual topics, Kristina Birk-Vellemaa to write and speak about this on the website. I spoke with Kristina myself back in episode 65 of Comedy Guy We talk about their backstory, some of the great "user feedback" they have received and also some of the struggles, particularly around setting up the business, where anything even mentioning sex is immediately lumped in the same category as porn, sexual exploitation and even guns(?). Check out Naked Love at https://nakedlove.ee https://www.instagram.com/nakedlove_official https://linktr.ee/nakedlove You might like some of the other things I do too Comedy Guy Podcast: https://anchor.fm/comedyguy Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran Zez Retro on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro Retro Shmups on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/louiszezeran

I was in Riga AGAIN last week helping the team come to the final decision on who our new general manager would be. I took the time to sit down with Dana Jurkjāne, who is one of the other co-founders of Comedy Latvia with me. We talk about the history of Comedy Latvia, how we met and how we got the ball rolling. As both Dana and I don't live in Riga, we have not done a good a job of growing the scene and the crew as much as we would like. Now finally bringing in a new senior partner is our way of pushing things forward and I'll tell you what, we owe it to our comedians in Latvia. They have some real talent and I am glad now we are at the end of the worst covid restrictions we can really do something big again. It was a good chat with my old friend, we go over the history, the process of hiring someone and then we talk about the future of Comedy Latvia and I give my advice for how we will grow and get moving over the next 18 months You might like some of the other things I do too Comedy Guy Podcast: https://anchor.fm/comedyguy Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran Zez Retro on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro Retro Shmups on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/louiszezeran

I spent 3 days in Riga last week and I decided to record an episode solo on the way back to Tartu. I was down there to interview people for our new Comedy Latvia general manager position. I give the background on how that is going and also some life update stuff from me. I don't have a motorbike to do some cool "on the road" videos so this Volvo will have to do instead. I hope you like it, I enjoy doing these ones where I can take my time and explain whats on my mind more The video was shot in "upright mode" cause my phone holder doesn't work sideways, check the video here, its mostly the Latvian countryside along with a triumphant return to Estonia via Valga. Comedy Guy Podcast: https://anchor.fm/comedyguy Twitter: https://twitter.com/louiszezeran Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louiszezeran Zez Retro on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZezRetro Retro Shmups on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/louiszezeran

It has been too long! This week we are in Tim's apartment catching up on the past month * Tim didn't listen to the Istanbul episode so I answer his questions * The Brazilian lady who got deported from Estonia for illegally working for Bolt (or Wolt, we are not sure) * Why that might be Louis soon * Tim's feelings about the passing of Joey Jordison from Slipknot * Why some Irish boys are going to have to take it from Irish priests to save humanity * Louis' reaction to the online comments about Comedy Estonia's "covid safe" shows

This week I am in Vilnius and I caught up with my old friend and Stand Up comedian, Paulius Ambrazevičius. Paulius runs a comedy group in Lithuania called Humoro Klubas which you can think of roughly something like Comedy Estonia. We have known each other for many years, we presented International acts together in Vilnius back in the day and done a bunch of shows together. Paulius is a top guy and a great comedian. It has been ages since we caught up so we go over where the comedy scene is at in Lithuania and Estonia right now. We go deep into the similarities are differences between Humoro Klubas and Comedy Estonia and the overall differance between the comedy scenes in our two countries.  We talk about the back story of Humoro Klubas which is one I will never tire of hearing. Basically his group had a weekly show on TV within 3 months of doing their first gigs. They did well enough (or didnt suck that bad, depends on how you wanna look at it) to establish their names in Lithuanian pop culture and build their Stand Up and media careers from that. All credit to these guys, they did well and have forged successful careers from it, all while still keeping their burning love of Stand Up. We recorded this episode in Piano Man bar in Vilnius with some new lapel mics which.... didn't sound as nice as we hoped.

Its summer holiday time! Turkish Airlines have some sweet deals to Istanbul so my girlfriend and I are here for a week. After a few days here, I setup the camera and recorder on the balcony here and I tell you what I think about Istanbul and Turkish culture. The audio isn't quite studio quality but you can hear the sounds of the city around me, including the Turkish music concert which seems to play every evening from 7pm to 11pm. Istanbul is great fun. The food, the people, the history and while its good... anything feels good after being trapped at home for 18 months. I have a few beers while fighting off the seagulls who are going for my börek. Thanks for listening and supporting the podcast! See me on the Istanbul balcony by watching the episode on YouTube https://youtu.be/xg76mLw6RmA

We finally did it! We finally got our act together and recorded a podcast in the Estonian countryside! Several weeks ago we found an article which announced that Viskla had won "Village of the Year" and Tim & I knew we had to go visit. We drove the 40 mins south to find the Viskla Külakeskus which also happens to be an amazing center of Estonian kiiking. Kiiking is a genuine Estonian sport where someone stands (or rather, gets tied onto) on this huge swing and tries to go 360 degrees over the top.  On the day we arrived they were running a kiiking course and we got to see the swinging in action. It was rad. A nice lady took the time to explain the history of kiiking to us and gave us a tour of the külakeskus. Tim and I recorded this episode outside, on a traditional wooden swing with bench seats and a table in the middle.  We got to talking about... Our day looking around Kose and VisklaThe history of kiiking as the lady explained to usIn nearby Palvere there is a farm where some bloke collects old military trucks. Where did he get them all?Trying to bribe the old lady at the bus stop with vodkaNot once did we see Tanel KiikLouis' theory on why Estonian surnames are often taken from natureThe full story about Louis being hit by a car on his bike"PAIDE WAY", eh eh "by the way... PAIDE WAY" geddit??Dear foreigners: stop blaming racism when maybe you didn't try hard enough This episode was tremendous fun for us to record. We will be doing more of these episodes from the countryside.  The episode is best viewed on the YouTube video, except I screwed up the first 23 mins of footage. The audio is good and I spliced in some b-roll of kids kiiking instead. https://youtu.be/RqW1Rv0SP9Y

Tim just arrived back from 2 weeks back in his sweet homeland of Ireland. This is the first time he has been home in over a year so our boy has some catching up to do. He took James and Tauri with him and they traipsed across the countryside and hiked up some big ass mountain which almost killed them. There is an easy side and a hard side and apparently the hard side is labelled the "easy" side (and vice versa) because of some dry Irish wit. We get the full report from Tim. On the episode we talk about: Louis is gunna steal your bike Why didn't Tim call the helicopter to get him off that mountain? What us an Aussie "ute" and why doesn't Louis have one with his face on the side? Australia is back to lockdown, suck it bogans Why exactly do the Estonian police want to talk to Tim? Louis misses the days of "bribing vodka"

This is a series of episodes recorded with Martin Junna of Improv Comedy troupe, Ruutu10 and we talk about the similarities and differences between Ruutu10 and Comedy Estonia. In each episode we are trying to pick a topic and break down how we each do it. Martin and I take a recap of how our businesses are going post-lockdown. Warning, we geek the f*ck out in the episode on very nerdy business topics such as Registering for VAT. I realize this is odd advice from an Australian but I think it's a dumb scam if you think not registering for VAT will save you some money.Making you show budget lines up with what your accountant reports.Why doing Stand Up outside is harder than it seems Pubs in small cities can be awesome places to do a show but it's pretty hard to make a hip place in the countryside profitable.How can Ruutu10 branch out and perform in more cities than just Tallinn and Tartu.The different new rules for running a events in Estonia compared to Latvia. Thank you for the support, I know these super nerdy episodes might not appeal to everyone but we have had feedback that if you are into this topic, then you will really be into this stuff. If you want more information about Ruutu10 then sign up for their newsletter on their webpage https://www.ruutu10.ee