Getting very excited as the holiday season looms. Not so much for Hanukkah or Christmas, but for Succotash Day! It's coming up on Tuesday, December 4th, and it's all thanks to Jabs, the main man at The DHead Factor podcast in Australia. (We talked about it when he was my special guest co-host in Epi40, if you missed it…) Given our production schedule, this show — Epi41 — is about as close as we're going to get to celebrating it on the air (on the pod?), although we might surprise you. Click over to Jabs' show on the day and find out which other podcasts will be talking about us — and we'd appreciate any ratings, reviews and other kudos that you might want to foist upon us up at iTunes, Stitcher and anywhere else Succotash is heard.
Getting on with this show, I've got my interview with Special Guest Hal Sparks. As I already apologize to Hal in the epi, I recorded our chat two months ago, when he was doing a couple of shows at Yoshi's in San Francisco. I would have gotten this up earlier but…it's Succotash. One of these days we'll actually get everything together on time. But Hal was a terrific interview and, what's more, it was a real treat to see him live. As long as I've been in the comedy world, our paths have never crossed and I've only seen him on TV, in the movies, heard his voicework…but never seen him on stage. check out his homesite for his live appearances and radio shows!
DO IT FOR THE KIDS!
I also have a chat via Skype with Ethan Dettenmaier, host of Combat Radio, about his upcoming 2nd Annual Christmas Breakfast for Homeless Children. That's happening on Saturday, December 8th, at the Salt Creek Grille in Valencia, CA. It was nice to connect with Ethan live after playing a few of his clips on the show, and to hear about this great cause he's putting together to bring Christmas morning to some kids who might otherwise be having nothing but pain this year for the holidays.
POD MAFIA ASSEMBLE!
As mentioned on this podcast, I got the opportunity to have an informal get-together (AKA beers) with two members of the still-coagulating Pod Mafia. Ed Wallick of Don't Quit Your Daycast and Tom Bevis, host of Destination Asphyxiation, met up with me in San Francisco over the Thanksgiving weekend and we chatted about all things podcasty. Great to see those guys and be sure to check out their shows.
JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS!
If you're looking to do some cyber Christmas shopping this year and Amazon is your destination, you can help put a little something in the ol' Succotash stocking by clicking on our Amazon carousel at the bottom of our homesite to get there. That way, Amazon shaves off a tiny bit of whatever you spend with them and kicks it back to us. On the other hand, browing through our Succotashery might be just the thing if you're looking for some of our lovely merch to make this holiday season bright!
CLIPS!
Besides the two interviews in Epi41, we even had room for a few clips. Here's what you'll hear on the show this time around:
The Fireside Chronicles
I’ve been seeing tweets by The Fireside Chronicles for a bit now and lo and behold, a clip from that show in England arrived in our Tweetsack! Hosted by Waggy, Matty & Phil, it’s become the sort of flagship show for a little network of podcasts which includes Principa Hypothetica, The Bedside Chronicles, The Kalahari Chronicles and The Ringside Chronicles. In this clip, they mostly talk about sausage rolls…
Ratchet & The Geek
Over on Splitsider.com in the This Week in Comedy Podcasts column, I’m reviewing Ratchet & The Geek with Luvvie Ajayi and Scott Hanselman. They’ve only put up their 3rd show but they already have over 10,000 downloads. Luvvie runs a highly read comedy blog and Scott's digital nerdiness spreads out in a blog and two other podcasts about tech. It’s entertaining chat, blending gadget talk with current events – their homesite calls it “The Intersection of social media, pop culture and technology.”
The Sibling Rivalry Podcast
I found Jeremy Grater, Aaron Ristow, and Stacy Black with a random grab off of iTunes' New & Noteworthy this week to bring you a clip from The Sibling Rivalry Podcast. (You have to understand that “New and Noteworthy” is a bit of a misnomer, especially when they have a show like Sibling Rivalry because this clip is from their 309th show!)
That it for Epi41. Next show I will have Special Guest Host That Chris Gore from the PodCRASH podcast with me, pulling clips and kicking back in San Francisco.
Happy Succotash Day (December 4th), everybody! What a great day to pass the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon
We've got a bunch of clips in Epi40, the longest episode of Succotash yet! Yes, I said "we", because I'm joined by special guest co-host Jabs (aka Jason McNamara) all the way from Canberra, Australia, through the magic of Skype. Jabs is the main man behind The DHead Factor and invited me to share the hosting duties several months ago on his show, so I figured it was high time to return the favor. Wasn't sure how it was going to come together, given the time difference, but Jabs is on holiday down under so he was kindly enough to give up part of a Monday morning at his end.
He really serves as a true co-host in this installment - I didn't really get a chance to interview him about his podcast or his life or anything. So if you're hoping to learn more about Jabs the man, please click right over to his podcast and start filling your ears. We split the job of pulling clips for this show, which allowed us to surprise each other with new discoveries. (And since we both enjoy yakking so much, the running time on this episode is over an hour and a half.)
It was great having Jabs on the show, and that's not just because he's announced that he's proclaimed December 4th to be Succotash Day! That's right - an international observance of this very podcast! We chat about it during the episode and you can be SURE I'll be talking more about it as the blessed event approaches.
T-SHIRT WINNER
In the previous episode with my interview with Andy Bumatai, I offered to give away an old t-shirt of Andy's from the Crack Up Thursdayz one nighter comedy gig in Hawaii to someone who could tell me the distance in miles between San Francisco and Honolulu. I had a number of people email in with the mileage — 2387 — and then randomly drew Esben Borsting's name from the correct entries. So I'll be sending the t-shirt his way...back to Honolulu. Thanks to everyone who entered.
FUNCTIONAL NERDS
Maybe I don't talk about myself enough on THIS show but I can't shut up about me when I guest on Epi126 of the Functional Nerds podcast. Hosts John Anealio (who was a guest on Succotash back in Epi33) and Patrick Hester made me feel welcome and the time flew by. At least for me. Might be different for you. Click over and give a listen...
B & A
Alba Lewis and Thomas Moore of The Brit & The American podcast swept through San Francisco on a roundabout journey to Peru, stopping just long enough to tuck into a Chinese dinner and have some good conversation with yours truly. Thanks for the eats, kids, bon voyage, and I'll be putting up some or all of our chat in the near future.
THE CLIPS
Let's do this thing.
The DHead Factor
The usual haunt for our guest co-host Jabs, The DHead Factor is also occasionally co-manned by #FUJosh and others, all the way from Canberra, Australia. Random news, lively chat, and more.
Royal & Doodall
In a classic R&D clip chosen by Jabs, Royal & Doodall pull off a dramatic send-up in which they pay homage/skewer a number of their fellow podcasters. Including US. Check it.
This Week With Larry Miller
Comedian Larry Miller suffered a head injury about a year ago and his podcast over on Adam Carolla’s ACE Broadcasting System has been playing reruns ever since. Larry's been on the mend and fronts a recent repeat episode with this message to his fans…
The Christopher Titus Podcast
I've always enjoyed the rambunctious energy of comic Christopher Titus – even more so now that the sound quality of his podcast is coming together. This episode's a treat, seeing as it also features freind-of-Succotash Kelly Carlin.
Pissed Off Man
Jabs has brought along a clip from a podcast that's a favorite of both of ours - The Pissed Off Man, featuring Gavin, aka Gee from Belfast's Gee & Jay Show. Here our mate's gotten all pissy about eating our at restaurants. Not because of the food. Because of the people.
Garagecast
Is anybody as incensed about the Red Dawn remake as Jake and Bryan? I don't think so. Give a listen to the Garagecast podcast, why don't you?
Phil Hendrie Podcast
I think the best way to encapsulate our inclusion of a clip from the Phil Hendrie Podcast is to run my review of same which ran last week in This Week In Comedy Podcast over on Spiltsider.com:
Good things DO come to those who wait! Years ago, living in Northern
California, my only reliable access to Phil Hendrie’s KFI radio show out
of Los Angeles was the occasional CDs of the show my friend Matt would
send me. And any time I was in the southland, I’d gobble up as much
Hendrie as my ears would hold. Hendrie created some of the most original
and hilarious programming to be found on radio. NOW he’s making hours
and hours of past moments available via his daily podcast. Dr. Jim
Sadler’s his guest in this epi, and he’s giving hints on how to get
people to move along that are blocking your way in the fast lane on the
freeway. “Get right up on their bumper and highbeam ‘em!” urges the doc.
“Nobody ever gets mad. In fact, they appreciate you letting them know
they’re going too slow.” And if that pokey driver ahead of you is
handicapped? “Four short blasts of the horn lets them know you’re back
there,” adds Sadler. No one messes with me – I was an all-star wrestler
and one look of my well-muscled arm resting on the windowtells folks I
mean business.” The people who call into the show are increasingly
outraged the more outlanding Sadler gets and even Hendrie cautions him
about going to far. Spoiler Alert: Hendrie IS Dr. Jim. And he’s even one
of the outraged callers. But the other callers often don’t get the
gag…and neither will you until you hear a few episodes and get hip to
Hendrie.
Mental Poison
Bill and the rest of the East Coast crew of Mental Poison made it safely through Hurricane Sandy a couple of weeks ago. Now they just need to survive more fantastically lame-brained marketing ideas from Brian…
The Bugle
This clip is a slice of the well-crafted and droll wrap-up of the USA’s presidential election, seen through the British filter provided by hosts John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman. We've played a few clips from The Bugle before, and we'll continue to play samples of this great show until you finally relent and subscribe to it!
TOFOP
Thirty Odd Feet Of Podcast is a show I've not heard before, although I did catch a few minutes of co-host Wil Anderson at last month's first ever Los Angeles Podcast Festival. Highly recommended by Jabs, Wil's an Aussie stand-up who's at the top of the pile, while his partner-in-podcasting Charlie Clausen just landed a TV gig that's put their show on hiatus.
Unkempt
Does a podcaster shit in the woods? The last time we featured a clip from Unkempt, one of them had, and left it wrapped in a groddy towel. Let's see what Mike & Matt have in store this time around…
Burst O’ Durst
Our political correspondent Will Durst takes a side trip into Thanksgiving Town.
Happy Thanksgiving to our American audience - that would be Happy Thursday to the rest of you. And what an appropriate time for me to urge you to please pass the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon
I’ve really fallen behind in getting Succotash episodes out the door so apologies to those of you who have been trained by decades of televison and radio with their regular release of content. I’d love to be more on top of the release schedule but I have a regular fulltime gig which, if I were just sitting here with an open mic and spitballing witty bon mots off of today’s headlines, I could probably pull it off. But on this show I try to bring you snippets and bits from comedy podcasts around the interwebs and around the world and that just plain takes time.
So Epi39 is a clipless show BUT I do have a great interview with one of my favorite comedians. Andy Bumatai is from Hawaii and is IN Hawaii and made his name there as well. He gets to the mainland from time to time, which is how I first got to know him. We get into that story in the interview. I recorded my chat with Andy when I was in Honolulu back in September and I was hoping to have it up before now, because it’s got some plugs for a show Andy and some other bruddas from the islands did in the Bay Area and Southern California at the end of October. I was hoping to spread the word but it’s like my whole show is on island time of something.
Anyway, you can see Andy regularly now on YouTube with his series In The Car with Andy Bumatai. (Note: Andy's show hit the web a good half year or so before Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee debuted online.) We talk about not just this current project of Andy’s but touch on many of the other shows he’s done over the years that helped to make him as much about Hawaii as pineapple, poi and pupu platters.
Speaking of pupus, that’s one of the things mentioned on a t-shirt I’m giving away this episode! Seriously. It’s an artifact of Andy’s – a genuine black tee from a long-defunct live comedy show called Crack Up Thursdayz. The show was at Honolulu's East Side Bar & Grill. I even have a picture here of Andy wearing it. Bear in mind I have ONE, it’s a large and it’s well-worn. But it’s also been well-laundered – Andy left it in my rental car when I drove him to a show when I was in Hawaii in September. Wanna win this timeworn classic? Here's how.
Send the number of miles (or kilometers for our metric friends) between San Francisco and Honolulu to me, marc@SuccotashShow.com. I'll draw one name from the correct guesses and mail the winner the Crack Up Thursdayz tee shirt. Be sure to include a mailing address with your emailed entry!
I was going to do a show around the 8th Annual Podcast Awards, which the voting on closes November 15th. Perfect self-contained show idea, right? I thought I’d feature clips from the ten shows in the Comedy category but, again, no time. In lieu of playing those clips, here are the shows nominated:
Beauty and Da Beast, Citizen Radio, Comedy Bang Bang, File Under Horrible, Metrobuzz, My Brother My Brother and Me, The Green Light Show, The Ramen Noodle, Walking The Room, and WTF with Marc Maron.
So get up to http://podcastawards.com and vote before November 15th. (There are a bunch of other shows in other categories as well, but we really don’t care about them here on Succotash, the COMEDY Podcast Podcast.)
With the elections upon us, don't forget that our inhouse political comedian and Ambassador to the Middle Will Durst has an ebook out! It’s called Elect to Laugh, a collection of his election year rants and observations, both from his act and from the syndicated column he does. You may even see a few familiar passages that you’d have heard right here on our Burst O’ Durst feature. Get over to Will’s site and grab it there.
Early Warning: I'll be a guest on the Functional Nerds podcast next Tuesday night, November 13th, hosted by friend-of-Succotash John Anealio and Patrick Hester. Catch it at 10 PM EST/7 PM PST at http://FunctionalNerds.com or download it later from iTunes!
Next episode not only we'll we have a full rack of clips, but I should be joined by special guest co-host Jabs from The DHead Factor podcast, Skypecasting with me from Australia!
That's it for now. Until next we meet, please be sure to pass the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon
