Ep. 41: The Eli Schwab Interview.

Ween Cast

For this episode, we are thrilled and honored to have as our guest Eli Schwab. If you don’t know Eli, then you should start now. A 21st century renaissance man, Eli keeps busy with his Cosmic Lion Productions. CLP is a platform for his various ventures, from Monkelion (which, as he’ll tell you, “is the world’s only comic about an intergalactic afro-synth band on tour through the galaxy”) and the Weenzine, to his podcast Cosmic Lion Radio (among other podcast ventures). Eli has his hands in a lot of pots, and we were just happy to get him on the phone for a couple hours!

First and foremost in the eyes of Ween fans, Eli is the man behind Don’t Get Too Close To My Fanzine (affectionately known in shorthand as the Weenzine), the most recent issue of which just came out earlier this year. If you haven’t seen the Weenzine, you totally have to check it out. Do yourself a favor and go to theweenzine.com because everything you need will be right there, and last I checked, there are still a few copies of the 2nd printing of issue #6 still available. Talk about brownness! Eli and all the contributors really knock it out of the park. Tons of amazing and original fan generated Ween content! And what impresses me the most is the quality of the printing. High quality paper, a rich color palette, professional layout, all combine to make Don’t Get Too Close To My Fanzine the envy of fanzines the world over.

We talk a lot about the Weenzine, the origins, production process, and the community at its heart. The secret, I learn, of Eli’s success is not just his endless positive energy and ambition, but is perhaps more so how he threads community through all of his work. The Weenzine is like a culminating manifestation of the communal vision of the entire Ween Nation, and at the middle, stands Eli Schwab, directing and guiding this fancy into being.

But we also talk about so much more. We dive deep into Eli’s time up in Vermont (he’s out in San Diego now), and he regales us with tales from his time working at Nectar’s as a short “Jewish security guard”, and attending shows at Higher Ground. Especially brown topics include attending a Sound of Urchin Halloween show at Nectar’s, and the first night of Ween at Higher Ground. Talk about legendary status!

Among Eli’s other ventures, he’s been podcasting at Cosmic Lion Radio now for more than ten years! More or less, this makes Eli an OG podcaster, and so we chat about what he’s learned over all the years, and we also relive a few moments from all the amazing interviews he’s gotten over the years, including Kevin Eastman, of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fame! (oh wait the TMNT part of the chat is on the extended cut only available at Patreon.com/weencastpodcast, sorry).

It was truly awesome to get to chat it up with Eli, and we hope you enjoy the conversation!

--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/weencastpodcast/support