The Moisture Festival Podcast – Mark Hayward

The Moisture Festival Podcast is pleased to have the multi talented Mark Hayward join us over the phone. Mark is a smorgasbord of quirky talents. He is a world champion yo yo player, a Guinness World Record Holder, Artist and self proclaimed “Cool Guy”. In our conversation we discuss his progression from playing yo-yo as a kid and how that took him all around the globe including appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman (twice) and being a featured speaker at Ted X. We also learn about the spinning top, the world of juggling and get into a complex discussion on cheese. A great conversation with one of our favorite performers in the world. 

Christian Swenson – The Moisture Festival Podcast

Physical movement virtuoso Christian Swenson joins Matt and Louie in the Moisture Festival Podcast Studio. They talk about his early life studying dance, his interest in movement and how that led him to create his unique style of performance called “Human Jazz.”

They cover the variety of performance masters Christian has studied under and how he came to perform at the Moisture Festival. If you love Christian’s work, you will love hearing how it all began. 

Podcast Guest Tips…

Yesterday I wrote about learning to be a good guest for doing media spots. Today I’m going to give you some tips to being a good guest on podcasts. Here’s a quick bit of background, I co-host a podcast called the Odd and Offbeat Podcast and also am the co-host of the podcast for the … Continue reading “Podcast Guest Tips…”

Yesterday I wrote about learning to be a good guest for doing media spots. Today I’m going to give you some tips to being a good guest on podcasts. Here’s a quick bit of background, I co-host a podcast called the Odd and Offbeat Podcast and also am the co-host of the podcast for the soon to be released Moisture Festival, which is the largest variety arts festival in the world.

My role as co-host of the Moisture Festival Podcast is to interview performers from around the world. One thing that has surprised me is how many don’t know how to be interviewed. Here are a few tips to be a good podcast guest:

  • Speak into the microphone and stay on the mic.
  • Come prepared. Ask if they have sample questions, or write out some questions and have answers to these. Even if these questions never come up, you’ve put thought into the interview and that will show in the final product.
  • Don’t think you are interesting, plan to be interesting.
  • Arrive a few mins early to chat with the host(s). That will allow you to relax a little bit and get all the awkward chit chat out of the way.
  • Don’t speak with your hands. On a purely audio medium, no one listening can see you. Also when you talk with your hands, you will be whacking stuff like the table and the mics pic all of that up.
  • Before the recording ask if things can be edited. Especially if you are telling a story and accidentally whack something with your hand, can you start over and have them edit the part with the distraction.
  • Answer questions and don’t ramble. If you are asked a question and you don’t want to answer it, tell them that. Don’t ramble a “non-answer” for two minutes.

Of all of these, the big one is to stay on the mic! When editing an episode, if I have to go in and bump all of your audio and no one else’s audio, that’s a huge pain in the butt. Hopefully you can go out and be a better podcast guest!

Be Unusual…

One of the types of shows I really like performing in are variety shows. Where I’m an act working with a lot of other acts of all different skills. I’m very fortunate that in Seattle we have the Moisture Festival. This is a variety arts festival that runs for about a month and brings in … Continue reading “Be Unusual…”

One of the types of shows I really like performing in are variety shows. Where I’m an act working with a lot of other acts of all different skills. I’m very fortunate that in Seattle we have the Moisture Festival. This is a variety arts festival that runs for about a month and brings in acts from around the world.


Here’s last night’s line up:

Frequently I’m asked by performers to “get them into the festival” as an act. I tell them they have to get themselves into the festival, I can’t do it for them. What I mean by that is that they need to go out and put the work in on their act.


Any producer of a variety show doesn’t want to deal with duplicate material. If you do standard stuff in the standard way, it’s hard for a producer to put you in an show with another act of the same skill.


Once you start having something unique, or at least unusual now it’s much easier to get into better variety shows. A couple times a year I write out my set list and next to each routine I put a “C”, a “U”, or an “O”. Here’s what they mean:

C: Common – so the trick is a common trick. An example of this would be Linking Rings


U: Unusual – The trick is less common. An example of this would be a trick you found buried in a book no one remembers. Unusual tricks can become common, so this designation may change.


O: Original – The trick is an original routine. A good example of this would be my marshmallow card trick.


The long term goal with this is to have a show that is all U’s and O’s. How you get there is by knowing where the C’s are and trying to eliminate them.