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Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst 

Ophira Eisenberg

You know when you talk to your friends about your childhood and end it by saying, "But look at us, we're fine!" Here's my question: Are we fine? Because we're sitting here doused in CBD oil under a weighted blanket recording a podcast called Parenting is a Joke. Each week, host and standup Ophira Eisenberg talks to a different comedian about their career and their kids. Conversations tackle the tooth fairy, eating sticks, summer camp anxiety, the hidden horrors of childbirth, and the obvious horrors of our own childhoods. We celebrate the absurdity of shuffling a career with raising a kid, and highlight less traditional parenthood journeys, all while relishing in the fact that no one knows what they're doing, but we're all trying! Sometimes even our best. New episodes every Tuesday. New Season October 1st.

Parenting is a Joke

Best -selling author and podcaster Jo Piazza joins Ophira Eisenberg for a sharp, funny conversation about raising three kids while writing bestselling thrillers, hosting a hit podcast, and investigating the increasingly bizarre world of mom influencers. Piazza explains how her novel Everyone Is Lying to You grew out of years spent reporting on influencer culture, from attending lavish creator conferences to briefly attempting life as a momfluencer herself—an experiment that lasted about two weeks before her children and husband revolted against endless outfit changes and staged content shoots. The conversation moves between the realities of postpartum life that never make it into perfectly filtered Instagram feeds, the exhaustion that makes influencer fantasies so appealing to overwhelmed parents, and the strange cultural space between burnout-era “girlboss” expectations and the polished trad-wife aesthetic. Along the way, Piazza talks about having a third child after a very memorable Elton John concert, feeding her youngest “like the family dog” after abandoning precious organic baby food routines, blocking Cocomelon and Gabby’s Dollhouse with the same determination other parents reserve for adult content, and using everything from Star Wars to 1980s movies as opportunities to talk with her kids about media, gender, and storytelling. For creative parents trying to make room for ambitious work without losing themselves to performance—online or otherwise—the episode is full of practical honesty about time, attention, and the difference between real family life and the version designed to sell you something. The conversation ends exactly where Piazza’s reporting instincts thrive: questioning why anyone would willingly romanticize chickens when, as she puts it, they’re covered in chicken shit and “so dumb.”

📍June Shows are in Las Vegas, Nantucket, MA, New Haven, CT and NYC

Follow Jo Piazza: https://www.instagram.com/jopiazzaauthor

Check out her new book The Parisian Heist: https://www.jopiazza.com/#about-section

See Ophira LIVE: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/events/

Check out my NEW Comedy Special “I Used to Be Nicer” streaming right now exclusively on Veeps https://veeps.com/ophiraeisenberg

SUBSCRIBE so you never miss O thing: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/sign-up

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https://www.instagram.com/parentingisajoke/

https://parentingisajoke.substack.com/

 

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Jo Piazza Sees Through the Trad Wife Dream

In this second conversation between our host Ophira Eisenberg and writer, performer, and donor dad comedian and writer Mike Albo, the focus shifts from how his unconventional family was created to how it has evolved over the last twelve years. Albo reflects on the surprising way a child instantly turned a collection of unrelated adults into a family unit, from annual birthday parties elaborate enough to feel like “a luncheon for the Obamas” to finding himself genuinely invested in catching up with grandparents whose lives might otherwise never have intersected with his. He talks about recognizing himself in his daughter’s ability to entertain herself for hours with thick Peanuts collections, seeing traces of his own creative childhood in the way she builds stories and worlds, and preparing for the role he hopes to play during her teenage years: a trusted adult outside the immediate family orbit. Along the way, the conversation moves through creative identity, aging, social media envy, queer culture, consent, and the ways parenting can quietly force a reckoning with habits and assumptions inherited from childhood, including a moment when a simple correction about personal boundaries made him rethink how casually children’s bodies were treated when he was growing up. For parents balancing artistic ambition with family life, Albo offers a perspective that is neither traditional nor detached, but rooted in showing up, paying attention, and staying open to being changed by the relationship. The episode closes with Albo describing his daughter watching movies on VHS tapes and winding down with cake-decorating videos while he marvels that her mothers somehow managed to make 2025 feel a little bit like 1982.

📍June Shows are in Las Vegas, Nantucket, MA, New Haven, CT and NYC

Follow Mike Albo : https://www.instagram.com/albomike

Check out his writing and work: https://www.mikealbo.net/

See Ophira LIVE: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/events/

Check out my NEW Comedy Special “I Used to Be Nicer” streaming right now exclusively on Veeps https://veeps.com/ophiraeisenberg

SUBSCRIBE so you never miss O thing: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/sign-up

Follow PIAJ: 

https://www.instagram.com/parentingisajoke/

https://parentingisajoke.substack.com/

 

Follow Ophira:

https://www.instagram.com/ophirae/

https://www.facebook.com/OphiraEisenberg/

https://www.tiktok.com/@ophiranyc

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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The Automatic Family with Mike Albo

Writer, comedian, actor Mike Albo joins host Ophira Eisenberg on Parenting is a Joke for a conversation about becoming a sperm donor for two close friends and finding himself in a version of parenthood he never expected. Albo traces the decision back to a deeper question—whether, as a gay man who came of age during the AIDS crisis, he believed he deserved the kind of full family life that once felt out of reach. What follows is both thoughtful and absurd: months of fertility clinic visits in Murray Hill, navigating the “Goldilocks” timing of sperm donation, getting performance reviews on his sperm motility from a stern Eastern European technician, and discovering that even sperm can apparently show up hungover. The discussion moves from the legal realities of donor agreements to the emotional nuances of being a child’s biological father without being a traditional parent, including why he avoids the word “dad,” how his role has evolved as his daughter has grown older, and why preserving his artistic life felt important both for himself and for her. Along the way, Albo and Eisenberg compare notes on horror movies, practical effects, creative identity, and the many ways families get built outside conventional scripts, all while reflecting on what children understand, what they need confirmed, and how relationships take shape over time. The episode ends with one of Albo’s favorite stories: his daughter, raised by two mothers and a gay sperm donor, casually asking, “Is Mike gay?”

📍June Shows are in Las Vegas, Nantucket, MA, New Haven, CT and NYC

Follow Mike Albo : https://www.instagram.com/albomike

Check out his writing and work: https://www.mikealbo.net/

See Ophira LIVE: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/events/

Check out my NEW Comedy Special “I Used to Be Nicer” streaming right now exclusively on Veeps https://veeps.com/ophiraeisenberg

SUBSCRIBE so you never miss O thing: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/sign-up

Follow PIAJ: 

https://www.instagram.com/parentingisajoke/

https://parentingisajoke.substack.com/

 

Follow Ophira:

https://www.instagram.com/ophirae/

https://www.facebook.com/OphiraEisenberg/

https://www.tiktok.com/@ophiranyc

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Mike Albo Deserves to be a Daddy

Jenny Hagel returns to Parenting Is a Joke to talk about the strange moral gray zones of raising decent kids while also living in the real world, from teaching a 12-year-old when swearing is funny versus when it turns aggressive, to bribing a five-year-old with 23 M&Ms to say “gracias” in Puerto Rico. Jenny explains how growing up in a strict etiquette-focused household shaped the way she now parents with more nuance, including why she refused to tell her son “we don’t use bad words” when there are already countless clips of her cursing online as a comedy writer for Late Night with Seth Meyers. Ophira and Jenny compare notes on raising boys in New York City, surviving messy apartments, losing keys for entire decades, and trying to create systems that stop family life from turning into chaos, leading to an unexpectedly passionate discussion about handwritten lists, highlighters, key hooks, labeled electronics baskets, and the packing spreadsheet Jenny has used for more than ten years. The conversation also circles around the emotional side of parenting advice — the judgment parents feel from each other, the pressure to raise thoughtful boys, and the fear of accidentally sending an incompetent future boyfriend into society. 

📍June Shows are in Las Vegas, Nantucket, MA, New Haven, CT and NYC

Follow Jenny Hagel: https://www.instagram.com/jennyhagel

By her book now! https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Advice-No-One-Asked-For/Jenny-Hagel/9781668079614

See Ophira LIVE: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/events/

Check out my NEW Comedy Special “I Used to Be Nicer” streaming right now exclusively on Veeps https://veeps.com/ophiraeisenberg

SUBSCRIBE so you never miss O thing: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/sign-up

Follow PIAJ: 

https://www.instagram.com/parentingisajoke/

https://parentingisajoke.substack.com/

 

Follow Ophira:

https://www.instagram.com/ophirae/

https://www.facebook.com/OphiraEisenberg/

https://www.tiktok.com/@ophiranyc

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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That’s What The Job Is with Jenny Hagel

Jenny Hagel joins Ophira Eisenberg to talk about parenting through big feelings, awkward questions, creative careers, and the strange emotional math of raising boys while working in comedy. Jenny shares how her now-12-year-old son transformed from a tiny Brooklyn tornado she once carried out of donut shops “like a sack of potatoes” into a “fun, chill roommate,” and explains how one preschool meltdown led to the line “my mad is too big for my body,” which completely changed the way she thought about tantrums and emotional regulation. The conversation moves from Mad Libs ruined by the phrase “diarrhea juice” to surprisingly thoughtful discussions about kids’ emotional language, including Jenny’s son describing a crush as “a string” connecting two hearts. Ophira and Jenny also compare notes on parenting boys with huge emotions, the pressure put on working mothers, and the exhausting flood of parenting advice from strangers who assume every family has the same structure and flexibility. Jenny talks about building her live comedy show Advice Nobody Asked For during the writers strike, where audience members anonymously submit questions into buckets labeled “family,” “love,” and “job,” before a real therapist comes onstage to grade the advice — including the time Jenny recommended secretly vaccinating a relative’s baby while babysitting. Along the way they talk about single parenting, Late Night with Seth Meyers, queer parenting, American work culture, and therapy as an emotional toolbox.

📍June Shows are in Las Vegas, Nantucket, MA, New Haven, CT and NYC

Follow Jenny Hagel: https://www.instagram.com/jennyhagel

By her book now! https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Advice-No-One-Asked-For/Jenny-Hagel/9781668079614

See Ophira LIVE: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/events/

Check out my NEW Comedy Special “I Used to Be Nicer” streaming right now exclusively on Veeps https://veeps.com/ophiraeisenberg

SUBSCRIBE so you never miss O thing: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/sign-up

Follow PIAJ: 

https://www.instagram.com/parentingisajoke/

https://parentingisajoke.substack.com/

 

Follow Ophira:

https://www.instagram.com/ophirae/

https://www.facebook.com/OphiraEisenberg/

https://www.tiktok.com/@ophiranyc

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jenny Hagel Gives Great Advice (That I Asked For)

When comedian and writer Megan Gailey joins Parenting Is a Joke, she and Ophira compare notes on raising kids while working as touring stand-ups, including the strange reality that dad comics are always available for podcasts while moms are constantly juggling childcare. Megan talks about performing stand-up deep into her pregnancy and loving the instant tension her giant belly created onstage, especially when she opened with “I’m eight months sober.” She shares stories about returning to comedy three weeks postpartum to preserve a sense of identity beyond “just being udders,” dealing with brutal online comments about her body only months after giving birth, and figuring out whether leaving home for road gigs feels worthwhile depending on the crowds, money, and homesickness. The episode also gets into bizarre parenting threats — including fake calls from Santa and a pumpkin-patch lifetime ban — plus Megan’s sports-filled upbringing as the first girl born on her dad’s side in 62 years. Between conversations about postpartum creativity, internet criticism, comedy careers, and raising a toddler obsessed with Shohei Ohtani jerseys, the episode ends with Megan describing her Pacers-loving father’s furious reaction to her son wearing a Michael Jordan Bulls jersey for school picture day: “bullshit.”

📍May Shows are in The Netherlands: The Hague, Nijmegen, Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, Scarsdale, NY, Guilford, CT

Follow Megan Gailey: https://www.instagram.com/bettermegangailey

See Ophira LIVE: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/events/

Check out my NEW Comedy Special “I Used to Be Nicer” streaming right now exclusively on Veeps https://veeps.com/ophiraeisenberg

SUBSCRIBE so you never miss O thing: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/sign-up

Follow PIAJ: 

https://www.instagram.com/parentingisajoke/

https://parentingisajoke.substack.com/

 

Follow Ophira:

https://www.instagram.com/ophirae/

https://www.facebook.com/OphiraEisenberg/

https://www.tiktok.com/@ophiranycLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Megan Gailey Adds Another Member to the Team

In this episode of Parenting Is a Joke, Ophira Eisenberg talks with Christine Walters—comedian, former TV development executive, and creator of Three Day Champion—about building a creative life that moves between producing, performing, and parenting a now 17-year-old son on the brink of college, while still feeling the daily pull of waiting up for him at night and resisting the urge to track his every move. Walters explains how Three Day Champion grew out of watching Jeopardy! with her family and becoming obsessed with contestants’ awkward personal anecdotes, leading her to design a live storytelling format where comedians must deliver three distinct personal stories under pressure, revealing not just their material but their personality arc, all judged by rotating celebrity guests with their own criteria. She shares how her background developing shows for networks like Comedy Central and Nickelodeon shaped her instinct for structure, including her earlier parenting sketch series Other Mothered, which exaggerated the quiet competitiveness and judgment between moms—like escalating a child’s science fair project from cotton-ball clouds to nuclear fusion—while also reflecting her own experiences being called out by strangers, including a Park Slope drive-by critique of her baby’s exposed legs in a carrier that sent her into a spiral of self-doubt. 

📍May Shows are in The Netherlands: The Hague, Nijmegen, Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, Scarsdale, NY

Follow Christine Walters / Thee Day Champion: https://www.instagram.com/threedaychampion

See Ophira LIVE: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/events/

And stay tuned to see her NEW Comedy Special “I Used to Be Nicer” coming out exclusively on Veeps on May 15th!

SUBSCRIBE so you never miss O thing: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/sign-up

Follow PIAJ: 

https://www.instagram.com/parentingisajoke/

https://parentingisajoke.substack.com/

 

Follow Ophira:

https://www.instagram.com/ophirae/

https://www.facebook.com/OphiraEisenberg/

https://www.tiktok.com/@ophiranycLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Telling Great Stories with Christine Walters

In this episode of Parenting Is a Joke, Ophira Eisenberg opens with a very real parenting milestone—her 10-year-old son requesting “the talk”, leading to a blunt, anatomy-first explanation that immediately kills the mystique of sex. That mix of parenting improvisation and comic timing carries into her conversation with Christine Walters, a comedian, writer, and former development executive whose career spans shows like Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and The Chris Gethard Show, and who now runs the live storytelling competition podcast Three Day Champion. Walters talks about building a creative life from both sides of the industry—pitching shows, shaping other people’s stories, and then stepping back onstage herself—while balancing the logistical and emotional demands of parenting. The two get specific about what it means to produce creative work under time constraints, how live storytelling changes when your brain is split between childcare and deadlines, and why Walters structured Three Day Champion as a recurring, competitive format that forces comedians to sharpen personal stories into tight, high-stakes sets.

📍May Shows are in The Netherlands: The Hague, Nijmegen, Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, Scarsdale, NY

Follow Christine Walters / Thee Day Champion: https://www.instagram.com/threedaychampion

See Ophira LIVE: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/events/

And stay tuned to see her NEW Comedy Special “I Used to Be Nicer” coming out exclusively on Veeps on May 15th!

SUBSCRIBE so you never miss O thing: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/sign-up

Follow PIAJ: 

https://www.instagram.com/parentingisajoke/

https://parentingisajoke.substack.com/

 

Follow Ophira:

https://www.instagram.com/ophirae/

https://www.facebook.com/OphiraEisenberg/

https://www.tiktok.com/@ophiranycLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Christine Walters is an Everyday Champion Mom

On this episode of Parenting Is a Joke, Corey Ryan Forrester talks about recalibrating a 22-year stand-up career around raising his almost three-year-old son, after years of touring 45 weeks a year led to panic attacks, canceled shows, and a long-overdue start in therapy before becoming a parent. He explains how COVID-era podcasting, Substack writing, and an unexpected book deal from HarperCollins created a financial cushion that let him stay home for his son’s first year, and why he still resists returning to full-time road work despite loving stand-up, calling live shows “the result of the work” and travel the real cost. The conversation moves through the physical and emotional crash that follows weekends on stage, the strange relief of having a kid who will lie beside him for hours watching all four Toy Story films in a row when he’s depleted, and the way parenting heightens everything from crying at commercials to worrying about how your choices look to other parents. Forrester also reflects on being raised by a deeply private father who never showed emotion—yet shaped his values around loyalty and caring for family—and shares how that legacy now shows up in small, repeated rituals with his own child, like reminding him to thank his mom and modeling daily check-ins with his own mother. The episode weaves together comedy, storytelling, and the logistics of creative work with a young kid, landing on a vivid origin story of how hearing a Tim Wilson CD make his grieving father laugh nonstop on a long drive to Florida clarified, once and for all, what comedy could do.

📍May Shows are in The Netherlands: The Hague, Nijmegen, Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, Scarsdale, NY

Follow Corey Ryan Forrester: https://www.instagram.com/coreyrforrester

See Ophira LIVE: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/events/

And stay tuned to see her NEW Comedy Special “I Used to Be Nicer” coming out exclusively on Veeps on May 15th!

SUBSCRIBE so you never miss O thing: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/sign-up

Follow PIAJ: 

https://www.instagram.com/parentingisajoke/

https://parentingisajoke.substack.com/

 

Follow Ophira:

https://www.instagram.com/ophirae/

https://www.facebook.com/OphiraEisenberg/

https://www.tiktok.com/@ophiranyc

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Taking Care of Mama with Corey Ryan Forrester

On this episode of Parenting Is a Joke, Ophira Eisenberg talks with comedian and podcaster Corey Ryan Forrester about raising a three-year-old in Chickamauga, Georgia while maintaining a demanding creative life built on touring, writing, and multiple podcasts. Corey explains how compressing four podcast recordings into a single day is the only way he can fully celebrate his son's birthday—complete with a carefully planned Build-A-Bear outing inspired by a deeply personal story about recording a message for his special-needs niece, who replayed it so often she wore the button out. The conversation moves between parenting logistics and bigger questions about values, as Corey reflects on choosing to raise his child in the same conservative Southern town where he grew up, resisting pressure to leave and arguing that becoming a parent actually intensified his progressive views rather than softening them. He shares the five-year fertility struggle he and his wife went through, his firm decision to be “one and done” at 38 after years on the road doing stand-up, and the physical reality of trying to keep up with a toddler while maintaining a comedy career. Throughout, the two compare notes on only-child dynamics, chosen family, and the subtle calculations creative parents make about what parts of their public voice might eventually affect their kids socially. The episode balances storytelling about career, community, and parenting identity, landing on the small, vivid details that define daily life—like a three-year-old’s birthday plan built around Build-A-Bear, cousins two doors down, and a dad trying to schedule his entire workweek around one cold March day.

📍April Shows are in The Netherlands: Amsterdam, Amstelveen, The Hague, Gronigen, and Nijmegen

Follow Corey Ryan Forrester: https://www.instagram.com/coreyrforrester

See Ophira LIVE: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/events/

And stay tuned to see her NEW Comedy Special “I Used to Be Nicer” coming out exclusively on Veeps on May 15th!

SUBSCRIBE so you never miss O thing: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/sign-up

Follow PIAJ: 

https://www.instagram.com/parentingisajoke/

https://parentingisajoke.substack.com/

 

Follow Ophira:

https://www.instagram.com/ophirae/

https://www.facebook.com/OphiraEisenberg/

https://www.tiktok.com/@ophiranyc

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

That’s What The Job Is with Jenny Hagel

Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst

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