before the cheering started
Do you think our favorite athletes and artists, poets and politicians, writers and reporters, leaders and icons were destined for success, marked from the beginning for a lifetime of achievement?
This is “Before The Cheering Started with Budd Mishkin,” a new podcast that’s all about the journey.
I’ve spent a career interviewing prominent people. Invariably, their most compelling and eloquent stories are about the road to professional fulfillment, when success was by no means guaranteed.
These are stories about terrible first jobs, overcoming doubt, plan B’s and the passion to push forward and realize a dream.
Guests on the initial episodes will include musician/actor/activist Steven Van Zandt, musician John Pizzarelli, broadcaster Bob Costas and the creators of the TV show Friends, Marta Kauffman and David Crane.
“Before The Cheering Started with Budd Mishkin.” Available wherever you get your podcasts.
Join us for the journey
EPISODE 1: STEVEN VAN ZANDT PART 1
Long before a musical career that would take him around the world and a television career including a show that became a cultural phenomenon, Steven Van Zandt was a rock and roll obsessed kid growing up down the Jersey shore: unpopular at home, unpopular in school, a self-described “freak.” For two years after high school, he was out of the music business altogether, working construction. Then, a weekend touch football injury improbably led him back to his first love: music.
This is “Before The Cheering Started with Budd Mishkin,” a new interview podcast all about the journey: overcoming doubt, terrible first jobs, plan B’s and the passion to push through to realize a dream.
Who better to launch this podcast than an interviewer’s dream: thoughtful, honest and funny. Very funny. Pretty musical too. Steven Van Zandt.
EPISODE 2: STEVEN VAN ZANDT PART 2
Our conversation continues with musician/actor/activist Steven Van Zandt. In part two, we discuss his decision to leave Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the height of the band’s popularity, his trips to South Africa and the anti apartheid song/video Sun City, his years in the 1990’s when he primarily walked his dog near his New York apartment and his schools program that teaches history through music. As always, Steven is thoughtful, engaging and funny. Very funny.
This is “Before The Cheering Started with Budd Mishkin,” a new interview podcast all about the journey: overcoming doubt, terrible first jobs, plan B’s and the passion to push through to realize a dream.
Enjoy part two of our conversation with Steven Van Zandt.
EPISODE 3: MARTA KAUFFMAN AND DAVID CRANE
EPISODE 4: BOB COSTAS
Bob Costas has a meteoric rise in broadcasting, from Syracuse University to KMOX Radio in St. Louis to the networks. But before Costas was a fixture on our televisions, he announced minor league hockey, ABA basketball and even was a substitute host on Bowling for Dollars in Syracuse.
Welcome to the latest episode of “Before The Cheering Started with Budd Mishkin,” a conversation with Bob Costas about the early years and more. Thanks for joining us on the journey.
EPISODE 5: JOHN PIZZARELLI
John Pizzarelli is a jazz guitarist extraordinaire and performs in the finest clubs and cabarets around the world. His blend of musical virtuosity and wit is rare and makes his shows a unique experience. But before he traveled the world making music, John was a New Jersey kid trying to find his way as he watched and learned from his father, the great guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, and Bucky’s wonderfully musical friends. When John synthesized the music his father taught him, his own musical tastes and talents and facility for storytelling, there was no holding him back.
Plus there’s a question that has nothing to do with music; how does a die hard Yankees fan become a die hard Red Sox fan?
Welcome to the latest episode of “Before The Cheering Started with Budd Mishkin.” Thanks for joining us on the journey.
EPISODE 6: AASIF MANDVI
Actor Aasif Mandvi is always an extremely thoughtful interview, eloquent on topics ranging from his views on being a man of South Asian descent in the west, his audition for The Daily Show and peanut butter. And his early years in the business, when success was by no means guaranteed. He was already 40 years old when he got the call that changed the arc of his career and his life.
Budd Mishkin
Budd Mishkin has been a broadcast journalist for forty years. He currently serves as an anchor for 1010WINS Radio in New York City.
Mishkin spent 25 years as an anchor/reporter for NY1, New York City’s 24 hour television news channel. He was one of the station’s founding journalists in 1992.
more on budd and the podcast
Thank you for joining me on the first steps of this journey. Journey is a key word because all of the people I’ve interviewed (and will interview) for “Before The Cheering Started” have been on quite a journey. That has been my experience in interviewing hundreds of athletes, artists, writers, reporters, politicians, poets, thought leaders and executives and anyone who has enjoyed professional fulfillment and success. Rare is the story of preordained success and a straight line to happiness and achievement. Through years of interviewing people in the field, in studio or on stage, I’ve found that they are willing to talk about their success and perhaps have a compelling story or two. But they are most enthusiastic and eloquent and emotional when talking about the journey getting there, when that success was by no means guaranteed.
This is the core of “Before The Cheering Started.” It’s Steven Van Zandt quitting the music business to work construction before a weekend touch football injury leads him back to his beloved music. It’s Marta Kauffman and David Crane working office day jobs while pursuing their dreams of show business, years before the international success of Friends. It’s Bob Costas sending out tapes and landing a dream job almost before he allowed himself to start dreaming about a career in broadcasting. And it’s John Pizzarelli, growing up around musical icons, learning on the fly while playing guitar alongside his father Bucky.
“Before The Cheering Started.” Let the journey begin.