Hi Sean Collier.

- Hello.

How are you?

Thanks for asking... - Nice to meet you.

- It's nice to meet you.

Virtually, though, it though it is.

- Yeah.

I have seen you on television for years and read your columns.

And I think of you as a fixture in the Pittsburgh cultural scene.

So I wanted to start with.

Are you a native and where did you grow up?

I am yeah.

I grew up in Ross Township, not too far from West View.

So, within striking distance of downtown.

And really haven't left.

I went to school at Penn State.

I did a semester at Galway, Ireland.

But other than that, I've been here.

You know, I, I, I do love it, you know, it's it's partially that that a lot of my career is just being vaguely known in the Pittsburgh area.

Those skills don't necessarily translate that well, but I do love it here in it.

I'm thrilled to have, you know, grown into some small role in the in the cities for a moment.

- Yeah no, there's definitely a fondness and affection that I also share for Pittsburgh.

Speaking of which, Rick Sebak said to say hello.

Oh!

- And how are you?

I said hello.

It's, you know, I, I worked with him for many years at Pittsburgh Magazine before I came to Table magazine and Shady Ave.

It's remarkable how much Rick Sebak is exactly who you think Rick Sebak is when when you meet him, it's some some personalities just translate perfectly.

Camera or no camera.

And he's one of them.

- Yeah, he's he's one of my favorite people in the universe for that reason.

So you're the publisher of Shady Ave, a local lifestyle magazine with a long and respected history, and you're also the arts and entertainment editor at Table.

And before that, you were at Pittsburgh Magazine for many years.

So how have you seen the culture of going out in Pittsburgh change in the years that you've been covering it?

People are much more choosy with where they spend their time and money.

Some of that is post-Covid changes.

Some of that is economic changes, I think.

But the the positive way to put it is that people really do want everything to be an event, and people want that occasion and to make those memories, no matter where they're going.

You know, there are old school Pittsburghers who just want the corner bar and the wings and the beer, and that's great.

But for the most part, what I've seen is a growth in really wanting to turn every night out into a special occasion.

And I think that's made a lot of places, both the cultural organizations and restaurants and bars that's made a lot of those places put a lot more effort into how they're presenting the evening.

But on the flip side, it's it's, you know, people are a little less willing to take a chance on something.

You know, people really want to be sure of the great experience they're going to have before they begin.

- Yeah, I think back to like, you know, my parents time in the in the generation below them were going out was a once a month, if you were lucky kind of thing.

And like you said, the people are always looking for like a new experience now.

You can see magic in Pittsburgh, you can go and see jazz in Pittsburgh, you can go and see dance in Pittsburgh.

And almost every night there's something different going on.

- Yeah, it's it's exciting.

I think that Pittsburgh is one of those places.

And I and I do think this is a good thing where you can have a good sense of what's going on in town.

It's not a city the size of New York, Philadelphia or Chicago where no one can have a grip on everything that's going on.

In Pittsburgh you can.

I think that's really one of the great things about mid-sized cities.

You can feel at home there and you can feel a certain knowledge and ownership of it.

That's something that I really love about Pittsburgh.

- You have got a multitude of interests.

And, one of the things I saw you do that made me really interested and want to speak with you is is your involvement in local wrestling culture and acting as a ring announcement?

How did that come about and what goes into prepping for an event like that?

I have such a uncontrollable draw to get involved in things that I really have an appreciation for.

I almost can't help it.

And, but I very quickly past the age where that might have involved training to be a professional wrestler.

- Were you tempted?

Yeah, I was really tempted.

When I was about 19, I thought, oh, maybe I'm going to do that.

It wouldn't have worked.

I do not have the the the agility, the pain tolerance, the cardio.

That would have been a long road.

That was about 36, 37 and, you know, knew, knew a few great wrestlers who were based in Pittsburgh.

My friend The Gavel, David Lawless, a lawyer by day, wrestler by night, recently retired.

It's a sad week for that.

The kind of my my home base, enjoy wrestling announced that they're going to be wrapping up.

They got three more shows and then wrapping up at the beginning of October because like, like pretty much everything in live entertainment, it's become a lot more expensive and a lot more challenging in recent years.

You know, the experience helps and knowing people helps.

But fundamentally, you know, you get there very early, 3 or 4 hours early and walk around everybody who looks like a wrestler and and say, hey, what?

How would you like me to introduce you tonight?

And then when you get in the ring, you hope that you remember all that.

- Do you have a voice, a special voice that you put on when you're in the ring?

- It's pretty close to what you're hearing right now.

It has a little more.

It has a little bit more bass and punch.

You know, a little more.

The following contest, scheduled for one fall, is for the Enjoy Championship.

It's just punching it a little bit more of it.

Fundamentally what I have here.

- I like it.

- Thanks.

- I read one of your columns and you spoke about how much you enjoy doing things that serve no purpose.

And that there's actually, you know, there's a joy in doing something that's not for any particular professional reason or because it's good for you.

What's your favorite thing that you've done lately that serves no purpose?

- This is another one where I've been tempted, but, my well, I if I actually want to unwind, I go to the drive in, I go to a drive in movie theater.

There's something obviously, I'm a I'm I'm a movie guy, so, you know, I'm always going to the movies anyway.

But there's something so peaceful about being outdoors.

Night, rolling in, seeing a movie that that you might not care about.

It's, you know, drive in movie used to be a phrase that referred to a certain kind of, you know, sometimes horror, sometimes action science fiction movie that was not going to win any Oscars, but was was very engaging to kind of almost passively watch from the car.

It really represents the opposite of what I was talking about earlier, where everything has to become an event and everything you do gets posted to Instagram, right?

One of the ways that they advertised the drive ins in the early days was that you didn't have to get dressed up.

Imagine a time when people get dressed up for any movie theater.

The drive ins often advertised.

You can come in whatever you were wearing at home.

You're in your car, no one can see you.

You know it's the opposite of that, making an event out of everything.

It's doing something fun and doing something enjoyable and involving the arts in a very real way, entirely casually and slowly and over the course of a long evening.

So that's that's one of the things I do purely to enjoy it.

Although I have had flights of fancy, like I'd like to own a drive in, it's not really a great way to get rich in 2026, but.

- I remember when I was younger.

Our my parents would put us in our pajamas to go to the Drive-In so that, you know, when the kids inevitably fell asleep, they just had to haul you out of the car when you got home and throw you in the bed.

And, and that kind of goes hand in hand with that not having to get dressed.

I mean, you were so not dressed.

You were ready for bed.

- Right, right.

I remember my grandmother, packing Ziploc bags of of old Easter candy.

My grandmother would always hit the stores the day after every holiday to get the discounted candy.

And she would say, here, take this.

So you have your snacks, but you don't have to spend more money.

But yeah, it it was once just this very natural fabric of fabric of daily life.

And and we're we're fortunate in Pittsburgh, there's five drive ins operating within an hour of here, which is not the case in a lot of places.

- Yeah.

There are some people who have never seen, I mean, not actually seen a film at a drive in, but they've never even seen the structure that represents a drive in movie.

So that's kind of a rare treat and a good on us for still having them around.

- Absolutely.

Yeah.

- I always remember the hot dog in the foil bag.

That was my favorite.

- Oh no, get one, get one tonight.

Go out to Dependable Drive In as soon as you can or Riverside Drive-In, Starlake Drive-In It's all five.

Evergreen Drive- In and Brownsville Drive-In.

All are great and they'll all be happy to give you that hot dog any day of the week.

- That sounds perfect.

I've always wondered, are you related to veteran columnist and playwright Gene Collier?

- Yep.

Genes my dad.

- And I always wondered also, what, if anything, did you learn from your father about writing?

- Oh, at everything in a very long term, gentle way.

You know, he he didn't sit me down and, and, you know, diagram sentences, but both in reading his work.

And in, in the little lessons that he would drop both about process and and about, and about, you know, the craft itself, it's invaluable.

And I know that I got much more from him than, you know, college classes certainly learn more from him than anybody else.

And it's, now retired from the Post-Gazette, but.

And that's that's a loss to the city because I, I don't think, I don't think anyone in town or anyone in a lot of places, writes as well as as he does.

I've learned a lot and I've, you know, tried to be unsubtle about how much I'm just taking over for him.

He was on DVE, now I'm on DVE.

He was on KDKA, now I'm on KDKA.

We're we're going to keep this in the family.

Even if, even if the generation has changed.

- So you just gracefully blend into where he was standing and no one's the wiser.

- So much happening.

Table magazine's arts and culture editor Shawn Collier is here with his weekend guide... - Touching on your many years on PTL.

Is there anything you've learned about television production that makes you glad you're a writer?

I love being a writer because I love work that's can be a little bit more personal, you know that I can go somewhere, experience something, come back home and the next day, write about what I experienced.

I love that personal process, and I don't think I would get as much out of reporting on television, but I especially love the spot that I have with PTL, because one of my favorite things to do is to share enthusiasm for things that people can do in Pittsburgh.

It seems light in a lot of ways.

It's not hard news, but it.

I really love the opportunity to tell people.

Hey, I think this is a really great way to spend your time and youll really enjoy it, and I and here's why I think you should go.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to share that.

- Well, it feels like you were couldn't be paired with two better people.

I mean, they're fun.

Heather and David really have bring a certain kind of vibrancy to it, and we were talking about how genuine Rick seems.

They are the same way.

And when you see of you were together, it seems like you're just hanging out and talking about what you're going to do over the weekend.

- Yeah.

And I think that's the magic of that show.

Myself aside there.

They are the same on air as on air, like you said.

And they are able to very professionally hit all of the information and names of sponsors and structure of the show without ever seeming like a TV anchor.

- The other thing about television versus writing, I think, is the demand and the deadlines.

Not that you don't have deadlines as a writer, but you do have a chance to spend more time, like just digging deep into a story.

I think sometimes when you're writing, as opposed to having to have things fit into a 2 or 3 minute block.

- You know, a couple of times for Pittsburgh Magazine, they would take me into Noah's Ark or behind the scenes at the Old Mill and and getting those stories about why something is set up.

The old mill is great because here's one of these examples.

When you ride the old mill at Kennywood, the first thing that you pass is a window where you actually see behind the scenes and see that there's a person sitting there watching security cameras.

And the reason that's there at the old Mill is because of some of the amorous activities that young folks might like to get up to on the old mill.

And they found that the most effective way to combat that was not just saying you are being watched on a sign or something, but actually letting people see that person is watching you, right?

That's the the little anecdote or the little bit of information that you use to open up the story for people.

Right?

In TV, it's kind of who, what, where, when or why, because we're packing a lot in.

So I agree with you.

There's there's more exploration, I think, when you're sitting down and writing, and we'll have to see how that evolves because so much more writing is becoming video.

Not in the same way as TV news.

But yeah, here we are talking right now.

- What is it that you love about what you do?

- I really love the variety.

What we're talking about here, I would never, I could never be happy doing doing one thing all day or doing one thing every weekday.

You know, I love that, I'm.

I'm a movie reviewer one minute and a magazine editor the next.

And a wrestling announcer that night and and a theater creator in between.

I, I really I need all of that.

And that's what I'm happiest with.

With my career as burnt out as I frequently am.

But the, the thing that that a lot of what I do shares is, that discovery and getting to share enthusiasm with other people, even if it's in wrestling.

I think of the role as the of the ring announcer as, as the number one fan getting to go out and say, guess what you're going to get to see next.

And in in writing, you know, it's it's often finding something, a show, a restaurant, a landmark, a piece of history, a person and getting excited about them and getting to share that excitement.

So that's, that's the part of of what I do that that energizes me.

- Well, I'm glad you said yes.

And thank you so much for taking the time.

And it was good to talk to you.

- Wonderful to talk to you.

Thank you very much.