Show Notes: Musician and Comedian Mike Wiebe
As frontman for bands like Drakulas and The Riverboat Gamblers, Mike Wiebe is known for a theatrical, no-holds-barred style of performance — famously, he once broke a rib and collapsed a lung while playing a gig at South by Southwest, but finished the set anyway.
But there’s more to Mike than being, in the words of the Austin Chronicle, a “shirt-wearing Iggy Pop.” He also has roots in comedy and filmmaking, and he seems, at any given time, to have about half a dozen projects in play.
In this installment of Something To Look Forward To, Mike walks us through all of that — along with digressions into the “Baptist-y microaggresions” of his childhood hometown, how death-metal bands allocate their corpse-paint budget, and the time Bruce Springsteen compared him to James Brown. Enjoy.
THE MUSIC
Most punk rock fans know The Riverboat Gamblers as a hard-driving Texas band with a reputation for being, in the words of Spin Magazine, one of the best live acts in the world. Wiebe still records and performs with the Gamblers, though in recent years he’s been more prolific as the lead singer of new-wave art-rock outfit Drakulas.
THE COMEDY
Wiebe’s been a working standup since 2011, and for the past few years he’s performed regularly with fellow Austin comic Avery Moore as religious do-gooders Dottie and Jefferson-Montclaire McCuewan. Here they are breaking down the subtle nuances of evolutionary theory:
THE PODCASTS
Zach and Mike Make Three is a great show with a simple premise: In each episode, Wiebe and Drakulas bandmate Zach Blair (also of Rise Against and Hagfish) invite their guests to share three things they love, from TV shows to board games.
International News Service finds Wiebe contributing, roundtable-style, to a comedic weekly roundup of weird-but-true stories.
SOMETHING(S) TO LOOK FORWARD TO
And finally, here are a few things worth checking out that came up during our conversation:
RABBIT HOLE LINKS
If you’d like to follow or connect with Mike, here’s how to do that: