About Andy Cowan:

contact@andycowan.net

X (formerly Twitter): @AndyGCowan


2023 multiple final Quill Podcast Award nominee for Best New Podcast and Best Comedy Podcast 



Amazon link  Banging My Head Against the Wall                                                 A Comedy Writer’s Guide to Seeing Stars  
.7 out of 5 stars

Featured on BookBub (2021):

In this laugh-out-loud memoir, a Seinfeld writer shares his own Hollywood story as well as clever insights for anyone who dreams of life in showbiz!   


October 8, 2018, hit #1 on Amazon Kindle Best Sellers List
by Andy Cowan, Foreword by Jay Leno, Published by Black Rose Writing

Banging My Head Against the Wall was acquired by The National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York, a 2019 USA Today Best New Attraction, on Time's 2019 list of the world's greatest places:
                                         

Featured (2 min. into video) among these "Visionary Book Publishing Houses"

"The Opposite” wasn’t just the classic Seinfeld episode in which George followed the opposite of his instincts to land success. The method behind the madness has been championed in various walks of life worldwide and even likened to the rise of Trump. The award-winning writer who helped Costanza win, and first pondered "the opposite" in his own life, identifies traces of it in the legends he mined for anecdotes before the cameras rolled at his first high-profile Hollywood job on which he also became a recurring performer, and in numerous stops along his unique road of comedy writing and performing twists and turns, as the only scribe associated with Cheers, Seinfeld and 3rd Rock from the Sun. (Multiple episodes and staff)

For a Tinseltown backstage pass, lessons from film and television icons, in-the-trenches comedy writing and performing strategies, Seinfeld episodes that could have been, talk show, sitcom and single panel cartoon development, and pitching the decision makers (or doing the opposite of playing their game), you'll want to keep... Banging My Head Against The Wall.

“Andy Cowan lives the life we generally leave unexamined. He examines. Then he re-examines. Then he postulates, examines again and finally writes about it. The result is insanely wise, madly funny and completely endearing. Read this book. Laugh, enjoy and discuss.”
– Jason Alexander

“Wonderfully written, Banging My Head is a creative tour de force and personal journey of admirable determination that shines a light on what it takes to keep going in Hollywood even when you feel like doing “the opposite.”  After absorbing the wealth of funny, smart and painstakingly rendered projects Andy has generated over the years, you’ll understand how the arbiters of what gets on the air don’t always represent a meritocracy.”
– Dan Piraro, Creator, award-winning King Features panel, Bizarro

“Andy Cowan's career is a ballad of talent and tenacity in equal measure. Banging My Head Against the Wall offers an unflinching and entertaining account of the show business roller coaster, which for Andy always seems to flicker between sky-scraping exhilaration and deep nausea.”
– Rob Burnett, Executive Producer/Head Writer, Late Show with David Letterman

“After reading this lovingly executed groundswell of creativity, you too will know Andy remains one of the industry’s sharpest comedy minds. This is the first book I’ve ever recommended that doesn’t have recipes in it.”
– Louie Anderson

“Andy Cowan’s time has finally come.”
– David Steinberg

“Andy Cowan lives in a different universe than we do. Fortunately, it's a much funnier and more entertaining place and this book is our ticket in.”
– Bart Tessler, EVP News and Talk Programming, Westwood One

“Boomers will get a bang out of classic Hollywood and Seinfeld fans of all ages will savor a season’s worth of inspired new episodes that never were. I thoroughly enjoyed this front row seat to Andy Cowan’s life story. Can’t wait for the sequel.”
– Hank Rosenfeld, co-author of The Wicked Wit of the West,
with Marx Brothers screenwriter, Irving Brecher

Crafting a blurb for a gifted writer like Andy Cowan is intimidating stuff – kinda like being asked to take batting practice for Pete Rose or to tap out a few keys in front of Billy Joel. Banging My Head clearly displays Andy’s gifts.”
– Michael Smerconish, SiriusXM, CNN 
  
“Andy Cowan’s unique mind operates at the turbulent intersection between the generations, the centuries, the down-to-earth, and the absurd. He is a largely unsung genius and potential cultural hero to the gigantic but quietly suffering population of neurotics that drag their sorry asses amongst the rest of us who are perfect.”
– Michael Harrison, Publisher, Talkers Magazine
  
“It’s my job to know Funny, so I know Funny. Andy Cowan is Funny.”
– Amy Lago, Comics Editor, Washington Post Writers Group

  
"A must-read for students of comedy and anyone thinking of pursuing this crazy business!"
–  Morgan Langley, Executive Producer, Cops
  
"For a great inside look at show business, you’ll get the most bang for your buck with Banging My Head Against the Wall.”
– Ken Levine, Emmy-winning writer/producer/director,
M*A*S*H, Cheers, Frasier, The Simpsons

              


2023-2024... 
Counterpoint Media featured political cartoon writer with artist, Dan Mconnell


2022-2024


The Neurotic Vaccine Apple Reviews 
 

“Unique in the podcasting space.. Delightful.. Engaging.. So good.. Fascinating and vulnerable.. Interviews are fantastic, entertaining, cathartic, as much as the therapy that kicks off the episode.. akin to an Olympic badminton event. I'm in awe." DISCOVERPODS


Benztown + McVay MediPodcast Networks 
Former Seinfeld writer and author, Andy Cowan, invites fellow neurotics to share his mini-therapy sessions with clinical and forensic psychologist, Dr. Scott Kopoian, towards the daunting goal of immunity to neurosis. Comedy & therapy – what could be more therapeutic than that? Plus post-session postscripts, special guests, and comedy featurettes. EP 1 special guest: JAY LENO,  EP 2: Cathy comic creator, CATHY GUISEWITE, EP 3: JERRY MATHERS & TONY DOW, EP 4: Comedian, ELON GOLD,  EP 5: Shark Tank's Mr. Wonderful, KEVIN O'LEARY, EP 6: CNN/SiriusXM host, MICHAEL SMERCONISH, EP 7: MARILU HENNER,  EP 8: FRED STOLLER, EP 9: AI DR. K!, EP 10: MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER, MARIO, EP 11: Part 1 - 2024 Supercharged Special!

(2020) Is That Normal? with Andy Cowan (TV comedy docuseries) ... Creators & Executive Producers: Andy Cowan & Rich Ross Highlighting humorous yet real, honest and sometimes very personal reflections on life, the show creatively depicts the patient's inner thoughts in actual session visits with multiple therapists. Add to that whimsical reality field pieces that call back to moments broached in therapy -- opportunities to mix it up with the growingly younger world around him and, unbeknownst to them, eke out therapy wherever he can find it. 
         
• Hitchin’ on the Highway of Life musical opening, Dr. K intro and opening therapy session with Andy… therapy ramblings on strangers being nicer than blood relatives... germophobia... the bots in Andy's life
• Half-full vs. half-empty theme. History of Up & Down Guys. More on today’s special guest, Oprah Winfrey and her pal, Gayle King
• Dr. K relays a study on the downsides of Facebook & the down guy weighs in. Dr. K identifies a surprisingly upside to Andy's lonliness
• Today’s honorary down guy: Anderson Cooper and how much of his job involves looking morosely into the camera…vs. New Year’s Eve, when he’s downing tequila… vs. Walter Cronkite’s day
• Up & Down Guys talk with the Up & Down Girl – on the up and downsides of friends and getting a dog
• Why God rejected the Golden Globe losers’ prayers, and second-guessing God’s creation of teeth
• Special phone-in guest, Oprah Winfrey
• Motivational speaker, Mario
• Show wrap-up
                                            
(2017) Middle Plus a Little Writer/creator and lead voice in animated digital shorts about a baby boomer amid a world of millennials (AARP Studios)

Plus . . .

Creator/writer/host of the 2015 digital comedy pilot...

 
Producers: Andy Cowan & Cindi Rice

Rob Burnett
CEO Worldwide Pants, Exec Producer Late Show with David Letterman
"The pilot is really funny. I am sure there is an audience out there for this point of view."

He was writing consultant on Prego, Best Comedy Short Film at the 2015 Manhattan Film Festival and IndieFEST Film Awards:

His popular culture takes premiered in 2013 on KTTV Fox 11's Good Day LA.

In 2011 he hosted and executive produced the hour comedy talk show pilot, Another Talk Show! with Andy Cowan, featuring Jason Alexander and Sheila Raye Charles.


51 minute pilot:


3-minute sample - Andy and Jason reenacting excerpts from Andy's first draft of "The Opposite":




Up & Down Guys, first profiled in The Hollywood Reporter, broadcast in 2010 and 2011 on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles:
  
                                                                           
Vintage web show version - (Listen:) Best of Classic Up & Down Guys from 2000

(37 min. 57 sec.)
·  Up & Down Day  
·  Therapy excerpt:  Dating red flags, don't sweat the small stuff
·  Up & Down Girl on the ups & downs of vacations
·  “Senator John McCain” phone-in excerpt
·  Comedian/comedy actor/honorary down guy Fred Stoller
·  Comedian Robert Schimmel (up & down sides of Seinfeld)  
·  Andy stuck behind a couple making out 
·  Ups & downs of the latest personals ads
·  Movie review reviews 
·  Another reason not to leave your house   
·  Former producer of Wheel of Fortune
·  Down Guy vs. Up Guys: Motivational Speaker Mario & Dr. K 
·  Dr. K’s ways to improve Andy’s mental health  
·  Sick but True Future Prediction of the Past!
·  Andy on his “other therapist”
·  “Jerry Lewis” phone-in excerpt  
·  “Oprah Winfrey” phone-in excerpt   
·  Making presidential candidates personally affect us   
·  Unemployment Tonight 
·  Signoff 

2010 Comedy Central Stage Hollywood performance  

Showtime CableACE award-winning Short-Form Programming Special: 6 Minutes 
Writer/Producer/Lead
 Producer/Director: Mark Harris 

60 Minutes' creator, Don Hewitt's, praise for 6 Minutes

He's written several feature scripts and over half a dozen original pilots (and hosted some) including several for Fox and CBS, written for Ellen DeGeneres' prime time Emmy-hosting stint, performed in comedy clubs throughout the country, jazz clubs throughout Los Angeles, and as a voiceover artist on Seinfeld3rd Rock, Lucas Films' Star Wars, Dark Empire I & II Audio Books - Star Wars Dark Empire  And Tales from the Oklahoma Sooner Sideline Audio Book, Audible Inc.  Plus narrator on TV series Star WatchHollywood's Best Film Directors, HBO Europe, ReelzChannel, Ovation Channel, and on numerous other projects, including (DVD) Los Angeles: Everywhere All at Once  

He's penned dozens of humor pieces for the Los Angeles TimesSalon, written for MyFM, Los Angeles, and the CBS Jack FM Radio Network from 2007-'10, cartoon panels in Reader's Digest, Airmail, the UK's Prospect, multiple four-panel comics for the Washington Post Writer's Group's Pickles, over 40 comic panels for Hilary Price's King Features panel, Rhymes with Orange,  special material for The New Yorker's Barry Blitt, multiple single panels for Harry Bliss's The New Yorker and Bliss Tribune Media Panels. and  300 comic panels (one featured on NBC’s Meet the Press) for King Features' Bizarro, by Dan Piraro, in over 350 newspapers worldwide, the winner of three consecutive National Cartoonists Society “Best Cartoon Panel” awards and its highest honor winner in 2011, 

(65 Bizarro panels) (SCROLL DOWN TO VOCALIST LINKS that follow...)


As lead vocalist and percussionist...

Very Good Year (parody writer, vocals) SESSIONS theme

ABOVE: (Live) -Things Have Changed; BELOW: '17 full song (vocals/hand percussion) 

Comes Love

April in Paris


I've Been Waiting for a Girl Like You


20th Century Man (original music, lyrics, Another Talk Show! 2011 theme song, live on tape)

First Lady is a Trump (parody writer, vocals, cajon percussion)


Everything Happens to Me (parody writer, vocals, cajon percussion)

Tinder Really Does It 
(parody writer, vocals, live at The Viper Room on The Sunset Strip, 10/17)
Girl From Ipanema excerpt 

... he's performed throughout Los Angeles for over three decades, beginning with his breakthrough performance of "Sinatra" singing pop and rock songs of the '80s, accompanied by Jack Sheldon, Plas Johnson & the rest of the Mort Lindsey Orchestra on The Merv Griffin Show: 


His original Americana pop song, Hitchin' on the Highway of Life (music, lyrics & vocals) . . .  [Listen:]

. . . with arrangements by Marty Rifkin, award-winning session musician for Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Jewel, has won five international songwriting nods... and is featured in the film he wrote and appears in, Knocked Down... 
(Excerpt):
 ... an official selection in the 2008 San Fernando Valley International Film Festival and 2009 Southeast New England Film, Music & Arts Festival, where it won for best comedy. 

Evening Stew (Excerpt) - 1996 comedy magazine half-hour pilot - Host/Writer
Executive Producers: Andy Cowan & Arthur Insana

After being profiled in Who's Who in America for over two decades, the publishers bestowed upon him the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. He earned his master's degree in broadcasting from Boston University and began his broadcasting career in radio and TV news in Pennsylvania.

IMDB profile: (doesn’t include all credits from 2000s, nor pilots…) Andy Cowan IMDB Link



Andy Cowan on... Andy

Andy Cowan on... Catchphrases

Andy Cowan on... Virtual Humanity