What happens when two people with complicated pasts — failed marriages, sobriety journeys, and a chance meeting at a 4th of July party — fall in love but decide not to move in together? Claudia and Jonathan join us for a conversation as layered and surprising as the indie film they made together, D(e)AD — a project born from personal heartbreak, an ex-husband who may or may not have faked cancer, and the haunting feeling that the not-so-great people from our past never fully leave us. They'll take you behind the scenes of making a movie with friends and family, funding it through Kickstarter, and then getting it into theaters one screen at a time — from cities across the US to London to Bosnia — all while navigating the soul-crushing gauntlet of festival rejections, fake IMDB credits, and music licensing processes that take six months just to say no. Along the way, Claudia opens up about using her parents and daughter as the raw material of her art, and why storytelling is how she survives. We also get into Jonathan's origins — from writing a fake Nightline to a history with cartoons and the discipline of keeping art beautifully simple — and the question that ties it all together: would you trade your messy, painful, hilarious past for a different one?  And how, bubble wrap can save your sanity. Bio:   Claudia Lonow started her career as an actress, playing Michele Lee’s chubby, loud-mouthed teenage daughter on “Knots Landing.”  Favorite episodes include: the one where she has kidney failure and is saved by Donna Mills kidney; the one where she runs away with the town murderer, “Chip,” and drives her mother to drugs; and the one where she almost loses her virginity, but instead winds up donning clown make up and singing “Put On A Happy Face” with her mom. Lonow’s next career was waitressing.  She did stand up comedy for a while, working across the country and doing some television.  When she gave her best joke to Sarah Silverman, and Silverman killed with it, a writer was born. Her television-writing career took off when she wrote a semi-autobiographical spec pilot about a former nighttime soap opera television actress who gets sent to rehab, called “Rude Awakening.”  Showtime bought the show, which ran for 55 episodes.  Lonow has been creating and writing television ever since: “Good Girls Don’t” for Oxygen; “Accidentally On Purpose” for CBS and “How To Live With Your Parents (For The Rest Of Your Life)” for ABC.  Lonow moved into directing with the award winning shorts, “Bummed” and “Keep Calm and Tampon.” Lonow just completed directing and acting in her first feature, the very indie film, “D(e)AD” written by and starring her daughter, Isabella Roland, her partner Jonathan Schmock and pretty much everyone else in her family. She is currently developing various other TV and film projects, has gotten back to stand up and is threatening to do a solo show. Jonathan Schmock is an actor, director, comedian, show creator, artist and Emmy nominated writer, (group Emmy but still). As a stand-up he was half of the comedy team The Funny Boys with Jim Vallely. As an actor you’ve seen him in such varied things as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Star Trek Enterprise, The Big Bang Theory, Arrested Development, Shameless, The Simpsons, The Mentalist (the guy who did it) and NCIS Los Angeles (the guy who didn’t) among others. As a writer/director he co-created Sabrina, The Teenage Witch and Brotherly Love and worked as an executive producer/writer on Dharma and Greg and Good Girls Don’t, Real Time and many more. Most recently he acted in and produced the indie film D(e)AD, which can be seen and purchased online, (hint.)  His editorial cartoons can be seen at jonathanschmock.com. His paintings have appeared in a group show at the L.A. County Museum of Art, (no shit.) He hopes to continue writing about himself in the third person for many years to come. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices