The Cast
The Host
Scott Rubin
Scott Rubin is the longest serving Editor-in-Chief of National Lampoon. Rubin's tenure began in 1999, when he and his team created the award-winning National Lampoon Dotcom -- an outlet for NatLamp's cutting edge comic sensibility online. The site's content was entered into the Smithsonian Institute for best exemplifying American satire in the weeks following the 9-11 attacks, and has been awarded "Best of the Web" from the Los Angeles Times, Forbes, USA Today, CNN and The Wall Street Journal. During his ten years at the helm, Rubin created, wrote, and produced nearly 600 animations, videos, and written pieces including many multi-million viewed youtube videos. The site received two Webby Award Nominations for Best Comedy Site and upon his departure in 2008, Rubin/NatLamp videos were ranked #1 in the 12-24 demo (according to ranking service TubeMogul).
Scott, while in-charge of the NatLamp’s Publishing division -- created, developed, wrote and edited over twenty books, including the famous parody of the Hollywood Reporter - "The Hollywood Retorter."
Rubin also produced television shows for National Lampoon including "Master Debaters," an irreverent, debating show featuring celebrity, and real college debaters, Game Show Network's highly-touted "National Lampoon's Funny Money," Writer, Co-Executive Producer and Co-Star of AMC Network's "The Pitch," and Executive Producer of "National Lampoon's Lemmings" starring Adam DeVine, Anders Holm, Blake Anderson and Jillian Bell.
Rubin got his start in the comedy business writing for over 40 stand-up comedians including Gary Shandling. He was one of the most sought after stand-up writers along with then partner Doug Kor and was dubbed the "Comedy Doctor" by the Hollywood stand-up community. Columbia Pictures hired him as the Comedy Consultant on the Tom Hanks standup movie, "Punchline."
Rubin continued his comedy career, performing his popular one-man show "Toxic Memories" throughout Los Angeles while designing computer games for Electronic Arts. Scott earned a Parent's Choice Award and the Interactive Arts & Sciences Award for best game design for the children’s edutainment CD-Rom classic, "Scooters Magic Castle."
After bringing NatLamp into the digital age, Scott was hired by the new MySpace as the Editor for Comedy and produced one of MySpace's most memorable, popular videos, "The Stonie Awards" starring Ben Gleib.
Recently, Scott joined the ranks of indie filmmaker with the release of his first feature film, "The Rainbow Bridge Motel” distributed by Gravitas Ventures. Currently Scott writes and stars in the popular iTunes TV series, “Before Future Boy.”
However, Scott considers his greatest accomplishment, his latest project, “The Word w/ Scott Rubin.” “Having a chance to bring the wisdom and awe of G-d’s word to the religious and secular, Jew and gentile, believer and non-believer is the most rewarding and meaningful endeavor of my life.”
Rubin is originally from Buffalo, NY and received his BFA in Cinema from the University of Miami. He resides in Los Angeles with his family and his undying love for the Buffalo Bills.
The Regulars
Jacqi Vene
Resident Brainiac
On a crisp summer morning 20 years ago, Jacqi's mother awoke at dawn searching for her three year old daughter who was nowhere to be found. Finally she ran outside and clasped her hand over her heart, for Jacqi was in the middle of the field, smiling, naked, playing with ducks.
Jacqi has grown up loving the earth and living as free and loving as one can be on this odd planet. Jacqi Vené got her first taste of being an entertainer when she was cast as Pinocchio in the play Pinocchio when she was 12 years old. The fact that she was cast as a boy did not bother her until after her final performance when a 5 year old asked her if she was a boy.
Jacqi moved to Los Angeles when she was 18 years old with $500 dollars to her name. In 2020 alone she filmed three feature films and has a movie coming to Netflix in 2021 for 20th Century Fox. Smiling, crying, giggling, and screaming on her quest to find the answers of the mysteries of life, Jacqi is honored to be a part of The Word which challenges her to express and consider a variety of new ways of thinking about life itself and our place in it.
Sandy Danto
Co-Host
Sandy Danto is an aggressively comfortable LA-based comedian. Danto is a paid regular at The Comedy Store and Hollywood Improv. In addition to performing all over Los Angeles, he has brought laughter everywhere from Tokyo, to Australia and New Zealand on through obscure parts of Canada and Iowa. To combine his comedic gift for gab with more substance, he started a podcast about becoming a dad while being a comedian called Mother F***ers: A Parenting Podcast. Sandy's antics can be seen in Comedy Central shows like The Story Of Our Times, Mash Up and Brody Stevens’ Enjoy It! in addition to Alone Together and Mad TV, various commercials and a gaggle of funny YouTube sketches. He took a dramatic turn starring in the award winning indie feature film "Funny Fat Guy” and is the comic relief in the horror film “Tar”. He's given brilliant performances in several passed upon tv pilots that will never see the light of day, but neither will Sandy since he's not really a morning person... His debut album “Daddy Boy” is available for your listening pleasure on all streaming platforms.