Eli Bosnick

***Eli Bosnick*** is an American comedian and podcaster, and is one of the main hosts of the *Puzzle in a Thunderstorm* family of podcasts (*God Awful Movies*, *The Scathing Atheist*, *The Skepticrat*, and *Citation Needed*). In his spare time, he is an avid ventriloquist (a popular puppet character he voices is known as Heath Enwright) and he does magic tricks.

### **Dark Backstory**

Eli's origins are shrouded in mystery, but have produced a deep and abiding hatred of ziplining, due to a tragic accident when his Elastic Scrotum Syndrome was first revealed, possibly saving his life.

### **Touching message**

On 5 January 2016, Eli released an uncharacteristically sincere message of thanks to GAM listeners as the first interstitial of episode twenty, *Heaven's Door*:

> Before we begin the episode today, I wanted to tell you guys a story: when I was twenty years old, I gave up on my dream. You see, I'd just gotten back from London, and the job I'd been doing all through college offered me a full time position for full time money at the exact same time as a small off-Broadway production offered me a tiny part as comic relief in the show that was only going to run for a month and a half. And so I took the money.
>
> And until this year, I'd always sort of told myself in the back of my head that I had made my choice and I had had my shot—I chose the short dollar, and what I got to be now was the funniest guy at the office. I had made my bed and it was time to sleep in it. I lost that job this year, and I lost it with less than a month's worth of notice. Now, I should point out that it went company's fault: things moved the way they couldn't predict, and if they could have kept me they would have, but it wasn't in the cards, and so for the first time since I was fifteen years old, I didn't have a job.
>
> Now, I'm recording this little segment without Noah and Heath—we usually do the interstitials together, but I'm recording or without them—because if I record it with them they're going to hem and haw and say 'I deserve everything I got' because that's the fantastic fucking human beings they are, but the truth of the matter is, I wasn't really on *Scathing Atheist* that often when we came up with the idea for this show. I would come on once a month to talk about movies, and we had talked about this show as an idea—we had gotten a few Tweets from people who thought I didn't suck—but mostly *Scathing Atheist* was a chance for me to talk to two of the funniest people I knew, who somehow thought I was worth their time. I counted down the days in the month or every couple of months that I got to do a movie review, but it certainly wasn't something I thought I deserved to or ever would get to be a regular part of.
>
> But with a looming chance for no job, no rent, and the very real possibility that I didn't know where my life was going, we gave it a shot. It was Noah's idea, to his credit; he said, "You know, look, we'll create the Patreon for the show, and we'll put it out on Twitter and we'll see what people say." And I honestly—bottom of my heart—expected to raise twelve dollars, ten of which were from my mother, and then the other two from the people who thought it might be fun to hear me once and a while, but the show got funded in *three days*. And it has continued to grow since then—I am amazed each week when we look at our numbers and our views, and I have seen near constant growth—almost double where we started. I am in absolute awe.
>
> So, I'm recording this on New Year's Eve (just after midnight actually) to thank you. To thank every single person who makes this show possible with your listens and your support. For the first time in my life, all I do for a living is be funny, and while I know not everyone can do the monetary support thing, if you are listening to this, you should know that you are incredibly important. And because of you, this year (2016), is the first year for what I do for a living is what I've wanted to do since I was three years old.
>
> So, whether you're already a Patreon donor; or you're planning on being one once your Christmas bonus kicks in; or maybe you just listen to the show, and tell your friends, and it makes your day better, and you Tweet when it makes you laugh, and you Tweet your favorite sections… *you* are what I'm grateful for this year. You, and these God Awful Movies.
>
> -Eli Bosnick, Heaven's Door (GAM020)

This editor tears up every time he listens to it.