Succotash Epi49: Vocalizin' With Hal Lublin

Here we are, smack in the middle of Epi49, just one 'sode away from our 50th show! Exciting! And we have a wonderful Special Guest this show — Hal Lublin! If you're a fan of The Thrilling Adventure Hour, then you've heard LOTS of Hal because he's all over that show as both the announcer and filling out a number of roles in the various sketches. 

When I interviewed TAH's co-creator Ben Blacker back in Epi37, he told me that I really should try to catch the show live. And I finally got the opportunity this past weekend when the entire cast and orchestra traveled north from Hollywood, California, America to appear at the 12th Annual San Francisco Sketchfest. I got to see Hal and the rest of the gang put on a very funny show (they performed twice, actually, back to back) and Mr. Lublin was kind enough to sit with me before making the trek back down south.

Our podcaster friends can relate when I say that Hal, while he exercises his voice on behalf of TAH as well as cartoons and other voiceover work, still holds down a fulltime day job. AND is perfectly happy to continue doing so. He tells us why during the interview, as well as some "tricks of the trade" when it comes to taking care of those precious pipes.

COUNTDOWN

Two new entries into the Top 10 Comedy Podcasts as reported by Stitcher Smart Radio this week. (STILL no movement in the upper six spots, though - those podcasts are wedged in tighter than a sumo wrestler's mawashi.) And we clip the two newcomers this week so you can taste a sample.

10. The Church Of What’s Happening Now - Joey Diaz
9. Doug Loves Movies - Doug Benson
8. Real Time with Bill Maher
7. SModcast - Kevin Smith & Scott Mosier
6. Mohr Stories with Jay Mohr
5. The Nerdist w/Chris Hardwick
4. NPR: Car Talk Podcast
3. WTF with Marc Maron
2. The Adam Carolla Show
1. The Joe Rogan Experience

TWEETSACK

In the TweetSack this week is an email with an attachment from Davian Dent, the host of The Bitter Sound Podcast. He's recorded a song - a parody of the Sid Vicious take of Sinatra's My Way, which is dedicated to the podcasters that have supported his run of six shows he's done so far. And he mentions those podcasts by name (including Succotash...at the very end.) So I've put the song at the very end of the show in kind - hope you enjoy it!

INTERVIEWS

It seems I'm enjoying a tiny surge of demand the last week or so, as I have been interviewed by Jason Parsons at the Seven Days A Geek podcast as well as by Adam Harris from The Standup Chronicles show. Those drop soon so click on the links above and check 'em out when they do. The end of next week I'm off to LA for a few days, where I'm scheduled to appear on Combat Radio, live on Friday morning, February 22nd, with host Ethan Dettenmaier. Should be fun!

REVIEW

This week I'm reviewing a pretty funny show that's been flying under my radar every though they've now got 99 shows under their belt: The Ardent Atheist with Emery Emery and Heather Henderson. as my portion of This Week In Comedy Podcasts over on Splitsider.

CLIPS

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER
Take a hit HBO show and dump it into iPod’s podcast directory – BAM, instant hit video podcast. That’s Real Time with Bill Maher. No fuss, no muss. If you saw it last week on TV, then you probably WON’T download it this week. But if you MISSED it…now it’s free.

SMODCAST
The original SModcast that started Kevin Smith’s SMOdcast network. (A network that's now celebrating its sixth year anniversary.) They haven’t been around THAT long – this clip is from Kvein Smith and Scott Moser’s latest edition, #238.

SEVEN DAYS A GEEK
As mentioned above, I was recently interviewed by Jason Parsons over at Seven Days A Geek – the show we did was kind of a nuts n’ bolts about podcasting – and the least I could do was ask him to send along a clip from his regular show for us to feature. In the clip we have, Jason is getting the lowdown from his pal TK1 on how his buddy managed to break his toe.

THE BRAWDCAST
The three women behind the Brawdcast take webstealth to a whole new level  — on their homesite they’re only known by their Twitter handles: @ButtRockBetty, @JennieK97 and @HollzInSeattle.  The first two are the talent, the third is their producer. And in this clip we’re hearing about the art of spanking. In public, no less.

THE HALF SCOOP
I’ve heard form the boys over at The Half Scoop podcast - that’d be Stephen, Corben, and Bryce – that they’ve been tweaking their format. They just rounded the 25-show mark so we give a listen to the newish-sounding Half Scoop!

TALES FROM THE ATTIC 
So little information on their website, but here’s a line from Seth Wright & Zack Bennett's listing on iTunes: “Underwhelming, crude episodes filled with ramblings and random banter from Seth and Zack.” In this clip, war stories on performing on the road are re-hashed guest Angelo Warner.

BURST O' DURST
Not really a clip but a self-contained feature from the brain and attendant mouth of our Ambassador to the Middle, political comedian Will Durst. In this installment, Will gives out his own brand of mythical statuettes to some political worthies in this award season we're entering.

There's what's in store for you this epi. Keep in mind the next show is our FIFTIETH episode (!) and we're going to celebrate with a show-long interview by the three-man cast of Superego, one of the hottest podcasts around. Until next time, please remember to pass the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon
 

Succotash Epi48: Illusionoidin'

I’m very excited about today’s show. I’m usually excited about every epi, but sometimes I’m more excited than other times and this is one of those more excited times. Our special guests are Paul Bates, Lee Smart, and Nug Nahrgang – the cast of Illusionoid, one of my favorite podcasts.

One of the most interesting things about Illusionoid is that it is a highly improvised show, built within a framework that makes it seem like each episode is an integral story within a structured whole. Maybe that's where the "illusion" part of the name comes from - I didn't think to ask. We DO get into the nuts and bolts of how the show gets put together - performance, music, sound effects - as well as how the three guys met up and how the show got started.

I play a snippet of a recent Illusionoid episode after the interview, one that was inspired by part of our conversation just before the guys were going into the studio to record the show. You really should hear more and you can do it at http://Illusionoid.com, as well as on iTunes and Stitcher Smart Radio.

COUNTDOWN

Here's the latest Top 10 Comedy Podcast countdown from Stitcher Smart Radio. There are a couple of new entries this week but not a whole lot of action - no movement at all amongst the top eight shows from last week's numbers.

10. SModcast > Tell ‘Em Steve-Dave!
9. The Church of What’s Happening Now
8. Doug Loves Movies
7. Death Squad
6. Mohr Stories
5. The Nerdist
4. NPR: Car Talk Podcast
3. WTF with Mark Maron
2. The Adam Carolla Show
1. The Joe Rogan Experience

WHAT ELSE YOU GOT?

There's our Burst O' Durst, with comedian Will Durst talking about Girls (HBO) creator Lena Dunham and her amazing display of tattoos that joined her at the recent Golden Globes awards. I read a letter from Louis CK. And we have a song from Bonn and Obo.

CLIPS

SModcast: Tell ‘Em, Steve-Dave
Featuring Brian Quinn, Bryan Johnson & Walt Flanagan, Tell 'Em, Steve-Dave is billed as “Two Comic Book Men and An Impractical Joker. Uncensored.” The origin of the title is from a comic store that Kevin Smith and Walt Flanagan used to go to, run by a guy who they could never remember if his name was Steve or Dave. So he became Steve-Dave. Our clip has part of their regular segments called "Fat News".

The Church Of What's Happening NowSome people may be old enough to remember that the title of Joey Diaz’ podcast came from a character that late comedian Flip Wilson did, the Reverend Leroy, and it was the name of his church. Joey’s a truth-to-power kind of guy who also seems heavily fueled by edible forms of marijuana. But he used to be into heavier stuff, as evidenced by the story he tells in our sample of the show.

NPR: Car Talk PodcastDid you know that NPR's Car Talk radio show, featuring the beloved Click and Clack (AKA Tom and Ray Magliozzi) is also Top 10 podcast? You can tell it's new to podcasting and a to a whole new audience because otherwise listeners would know that Car Talk - around for 35 years - stopped producing new shows last October! What you’re hearing are old reruns of people calling in to ask Click and Clack about their old broken down cars.

Sloppy Seconds 
The official blurb for Sloppy Seconds reads: “San Francisco comedian Howard Stone and co-host Tom Sawyer discuss current events in this fast paced comedy talk show with music.” What it neglects to say is that Tom Sawyer has been a fixture in the San Francisco comedy scene for 30 years as the owner of Cobb’s Comedy Club. And he’s got as many opinions as he had comedians cross the Cobb’s stage. Their guest this episode is Bay Area comedian Johnny Steele, who has an opinion or two himself.

TalkS Hit with Eddie Ifft
Here’s a podcast that’s known by slightly different titles depending where you look for it. On its homesite, it’s Talking Shit with Jim Jefferies and Eddie Ifft. Or sometimes just Talking Shit with Eddie Ifft. Or Jim And Eddie Talk Shit. On iTunes, to get past the censorship on titles, it’s called TalkS Hit with Eddie Ifft. Whatever you call it, it has just passed 200 episodes, so something’s working. I will warn you that this show is NOT for the meek. This particular episode they have comedian Greg Wilson dropping by and the stories are, quite frankly, a little rough. Definitely NSFW. But there’s a crude hilarity and sense of fun…up until the moment Eddie shits his pants. Yes, that's right. Say no more.

The DC AM
AM is the host of The DC AM which is in Washington, DC. In a most recent epsiode, AM and a friend – the podcast homesite is very devoid of names – ventured to the Music And Gaming Festival (or MAGFest) in search of costumed weirdos running amok in our nation’s capitol. In the clip we have, they’ve cornered a dude dressed like Encio from the Assassion’s Creed video games.

YA YA
Brian Elles hosts a man-on-the-street type of show in Chicago called Ya Ya in conjunction with Peaches and Hot Sauce Productions. (I think I mispronounce the title of the show during the podcast - it's not "yah-yah" but more "yeh-yeh" - guest I'm not street enough to get those nuances…) In this clip that came right out of our TweetSack, Brian has Greg Gilenna (creator and writer of Meet The Parents) as his guest, who reveals the origins of the movie was a two-minute comedy sketch.

There aren't THAT many clips in today's show but, with the Illusionoid interview, this is one of the longer episodes of Succotash we've done. Even so, I still managed to tack on a bonus succotash recipe at the very end, after Bill Haywatt signs off.

Until next time, please remember to pass the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon

Succotash Epi47: Sketchfestin' With David Owen

I have declared myself to be a "counter Resolutionist" this year and, accordingly, 2013 is right on track since I have broken no resolutions. You can't break what you don't have.  Been suffering from some kind of viral crud (I'm not talking about an onslaught of cute kitty videos) that's going around the past few days but I don't think it's the flu. More like a cold. Whatever it is, it's taken up residence in my throat and sinuses, and will be making a guest appearance during this episode.

Our Special Guest is no virus although, with David Owen's tenaciousness at lining up comedy groups and venues for the San Francisco Sketchfest, he could be mistaken for something contagious. Last year about this time we had Cole Stratton, co-host of the Pop My Culture podcast, former member of my improv group The Riffingtons, and one of the three founder/producers of the  Sketchfest. For the 12th year of the 'fest, Mr. Owen joins me to talk about this year’s upcoming exciting show.

How exciting? Here's just a partial list of the performers scheduled to appear: Fred Armisen, Carrie Brownstein, Rob Corddry, Erinn Hayes, Rob Huebel, Ken Marino, Jonathan Stern, David Wain, Bruce Campbell, Patton Oswalt, Reggie Watts, Kevin McDonald, Adam Savage, Kristen Schaal, Paul F. Tompkins, Janet Varney, Eddie Pepitone, Michael Ian Black, Beth Dover, Carla Gallo, Ryan Hansen, Rob Huebel, Natasha Leggero, Joe Lo Truglio, Ken Marino, Erica Oyama, June Diane Raphael, Paul Scheer, Jonathan Stern, Maria Bamford, Roger Bart, Jennifer Coolidge, Rachel Dratch, Janeane Garofalo, Laraine Newman, Eugene Pack, Dayle Reyfel, Maya Rudolph, Fred Willard…the list goes on and one.

If you’re in or near San Francisco between January 24 and February 10, check out the amazing lineup and get ticket at http://SFSketchfest.com You can also follow info about the show on Twitter by following @SFSketchfest.

COUNTDOWN

As we started doing on the show (and in this blog) last week, here is the latest Top 10 Comedy Podcasts from Stitcher Smart Radio:

10. SModcast w/Kevin Smith
9. By The Way, In Conversation w/Jeff Garlin
8. Doug Loves Movies
7. Death Squad
6. Mohr Stories
5. The Nerdist
4. NPR: Car Talk Podcast
3. WTF with Mark Maron
2. The Adam Carolla Show
1. The Joe Rogan Experience

 WHAT'S THAT MUSIC?

This week we're featuring Jesus Walks by Karen Kilgariff from her album, Behind You. Find it and other goodies, such as Karen's tour schedule, at http://KarenKilgariff.com

DURST'S BACK

Although I don't have any resolutions for the New Year, our in-house political comedian and Raging Moderate Will Durst does. and he's not ashamed to share them in this epi's Burst O' Durst. Catch more of Will's musings at http://WillDurst.com

THE CLIPS

By The Way – In Conversation with Jeff Garlin 

This new show jumped into the charts at #9 for its very first week of life. It’s over on the Earwolf network and the show is recorded live in front of an audience at Largo in Los Angeles. For his first outing, host Jeff Garlin has tapped Larry David, the co-creator of Seinfeld and with whom he works on Curb Your Enthusiasm. It’s over an hour of rollicking conversation and the audience LOVES it, as you can hear in this clip.

This Week With Larry Miller 
He’s back! I mentioned last episode that comedian/actor Larry Miller was finally well enough to return to the podcast waves this past week. The first new episode of This Week With Larry Miller dropped last Thursday and most of the show Larry talks about the freak accident that landed him in the hospital, a medically-induced coma, and months of rehabilitation. And he does it in classic Larry Miller storytelling style. (Because that sort of thing is so hard to clip, I’ve opted to tease you with his Joke Of The Week, which is just Larry telling an old joke.)

Double Talk Radio
At Double Talk Radio, Double K and one of his guests from this episode, Matty, have a story to tell. And you’ll probably hear from DK’s co-host Cookie J and their other guest, The Hick. The audio quality of this cast is less than our usual standards, but they’re got something going on it seems – been on for awhile and have a lot of loyal listeners.

Duncan Trussell Family Hour 

With well over a hundred episodes of the Duncan Trussell Family Hour under his belt, comedian Duncan Trussell's guests include comedians, actors and people from all sorts of interesting directions. Most recently his focus in his pre-interview portion of the show has been focused on a probable diagnosis of testicular cancer. Our hearts go out to him and we wish him a safe recovery. And you have to admire he spirit with which he approaches such a heavy thing, as heard from the beginning of a recent episode…

The Geek Generation
The Geek Generation, with co-hosts Rob Logan, Mike Volpe, Anna Zifcak, Mikey Arsenault, is another podcast that’s passed the century-episode mark a while ago. They cover ANYTHING remotely geeky – video games, movies, TV, comic books, tech, animation – you name it, they’ll eventually get around to it. And even though co-host Anna Zifcak has grown up by buying a house and now she’s about to get married. But a geek can’t have an ordinary wedding now, can she?

Wheelbarrow Full of Dicks
That’s the name of a podcast featuring Mike, Drunk, Paul, and Nappier – four guys I know very little about because – as is often the case – 84% of podcasters have an aversion to revealing much information about themselves. (I got that stat the same place I found out that 72% of podcasters make up statistics.) Anyway, Wheelbarrow falls under my heading of being an STS show – Shooting The Shit – and these guys will go anywhere that there’s conversation to be had.

It’s Not Soccer Podcast 

What would you call a sports podcast that has precious little to do with sports? How about the It’s Not Soccer Podcast. That’s what Adam Barker who Succotashians know from the Oddcast Podcast and Billy Cutmore call their show. As THEY say, if you’re not into sports, listening to It’s Not Soccer will NOT make you feel left out.

That's about it for this episode. Appreciate you stopping by. Appreciate you even more if you wanted to hit the Donate button in the upper right hand corner of our homesite. Or do you Amazon online shopping by getting there through the carousel on the bottom right of our http://SuccotashShow.com site. You can even ignore the offers for the Hallmark Channel movie DVD's that I wrote or the I Hate People! business book I wrote if you want to - but for every product you buy when you go through our page's portal, we get a li'l kickback from the online store named after a big, dirty river.

Even if you can't or don't donate or buy anything, could you do me a favor and remember to pass the Succotash?

— Marc Hershon

Succotash Epi46: Pumpin' Out The P'casts

Welcome to our first full-fledged episode of the New Year. We've got nine podcast clips for you, plus a lovely novelty tune, Undead Love Song, by friend-of-Succotash John Anealio. (Off his album Laser Robot Zombie Love, available at http://JohnAnealio.com.) And yet the show comes up a little short, timewise, this week. Maybe it's because we're missing our usual Burst O' Durst with political punwit Will Durst. (Durst's on vacay but will be back next epi...)

Anyway, because the show runs a little shorter than usual, you might actually catch the little "extra" I began tagging onto the very end of the show starting with the previous episode. It's an idea I shamelessly stole from our friend Jabs of The DHead Factor — I started taking the audio track from videos on YouTube that feature recipes for succotash. This week's is a doozy: Daphne Oz and Tom Arnold make "Summerin' Succotash" on ABC's The Chew. Enjoy!

THE COUNTDOWN

Epi46 also marks the start of our Top 10 Comedy Podcast countdown, as tabulated weekly by Stitcher Smart Radio. It turns out that comedy podcasts up there at the top of the heap don't move around a whole lot, so unless you guys want to basically have me read the following list every week, it will behoove us all to get over to Stitcher and start listening and rating our favorites. Here's how this week looks:

10. Ari Shaffir’s Shark Tank
9. Doug Loves Movies
8. DeathSquad
7. SModcast
6. Mohr Stories
5. The Nerdist
4. NPR: Car Talk Podcast
3. WTF with Mark Maron
2. The Adam Carolla Show
1. The Joe Rogan Experience

THE CLIPS

That's about all I have to share with you guys. Maybe if someone wrote in once in a while with questions or beefs or something, we'd get a little going here. Instead, here's who we have ready to serve up for your listening pleasure in this epi:

Dazed & Convicted 
As (belatedly) promised, our lead-off clippage this show is from Monica Hamburg's new Dazed & Convicted podcast, with her equally new co-host, Bill Allman. Longtime Succotashians know Monica from S & M Rants, but she's rebooted the concept and their new show focuses on stories from the news featuring what Monica refers to as “criminal fucktards”. Nice.
 

Ten Minute Podcast
Looking for a quick blast from Podcast Land? Listen no further than the Ten Minute Podcast. It’s three funny guys – Will Sasso, Bryan Callen (both from MAD TV) and Chris D’Elia (from Whitney), and they're happy just to be shootin’ the shit and being funny.

Mohr Stories 
Mohr Stories is the flagship podcast at Jay Mohr’s podcast network, FakeMustache.com. I’ve been wanting to clip his podcast for a while now and then, when I heard Bryan Callen in the Ten Minute Podcast we are also featuring this epi, I thought what a great segue!

Royal & Doodall 
They're back! You can’t escape the Pod Mafia — even though I recently played something from these two "made men" – Tommy Royal and Angus Doodall – I just HAD to play this next clip because it features…me. It’s from the R&D Christmas Panto show, where they had various members of the Pod Mafia from around the world record lines for this holiday audio play, then they stitched the whole thing together like a Christmas goose. I am truly humbled and honored that Royal and Doodall asked me to join in their reindeer games.

Nerd Poker 
Comedian Brian Posehn, who you may know from the Sarah Silverman Show, just started hosting a podcast over on the Earwolf network called Nerd Poker. Which is a euphemism for Dungeons & Dragons or D&D as it is often called. The show is Brian and a handful of funny friends, including Blaine Capatch, Ken Daly, Gerry Duggan, and Sarah Guzzardo, who have created strange and wonderful characters that go on adventures overlorded by their Dungeon Master Scott Robison. Because all these folks are comics and writers and actors, it’s all pretty funny and even if you haven’t been into D&D for over 30 years (oops, did I say that?) you’ll still probably enjoy it. (I recently reviewed Nerd Poker over on Splitsider.com - you can catch it at http://hersh.co/TWICP010313)

The Zane Lamprey Show 
Comedian, actor and International Drinking Ambassador Zane Lamprey hosts a show that used to be called Drinking Made Easy but now goes by the name The Zane Lamprey Show. Succotashians were turned onto Zane when we had THAT Chris Gore on as our co-host a month or so ago. Our featured clip is of Zane, his posse Steve McKenna, Fun Josh and Mel, along with guest, three-time Playboy Playmate Jessica Hall.

Allison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend
Although she’s pretty well-known as Adam Carolla’s newsy sidekick on his podcast, The Adam Carolla Show, Alison Rosen’s been hosting her own show since 2009. She’s very engaging, involves her listeners in the show with games and thanks largely to her clout from being part of Carolla Digital (formerly ACE Broadcasting), she gets some awesome guests. Here’s a clip from her recent two-part visit with Dave Atell.

Bertcast 
Bert Kreisher is a comedian with a podcast – imagine that! – and a forthcoming documentary that’s being done about him. We clip his Epi5 where he interviewed the two filmmakers who have been following him around, Jeff Johnson and Jeff Hinman. In the segment we have, they talk about what happened when they went out after hours with fellow comic Hannibal Buress.

Cox & Crendor Show 
The official blurb calls this show “The highest quality non-content 30-minute morning show on the internet in podcast form” and it seem to be holding that spot fairly well. These guys are out of Los Angeles and, if they don’t smoke pot, Jesse Cox and Eric “Crendor” Hraab really should have to explain why they laugh so much during their show.

There's our deal. Epi46 in one neat, tidy bundle. Next week we'll visit with David Owen, one of the founders of the renowned San Francisco Sketchfest, about to kick off it's 12th year. Until then, keep it real. And pass the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon

Succotash Epi45: Countin' Down With Clips

Happy New Year! 2012 had many ups and downs, and that counts in comedy podcasting, too. Some podcasts went off the rails — such as Affirmation Nation and The Gentlemens' Club — never to be heard from again. While at the same time, milestones were passed for others.

What did WTF, Nerdist, and Never Not Funny have in common? They all dropped their 300th episode this year! Congrats! And You Made It Weird, Who Charted?, Walking the Room, The Long Shot, and Sklarbo Country all turned the corner on their episode 100 in 2012. And the granddaddy of the comedy podcast ilk, Tom Scharpling's The Best Show On WFMU, actually rang up its 500th episode!

I came up with the idea of doing a Top 10 Comedy Podcasts of 2012 but, unfortunately, the concept hit me the day before I was going to record Epi45. I didn't have the time or even a methodology in mind to pull it off, so I did the next best thing. I borrowed a list from the AV Club. They had their panel of reviewers dole out 50 points a piece amongst the podcasts out there in the universe, did careful calculations and considerations before posting their list. I swear we'll do something like that…next year. In the meantime, here's how the AV Club's list shook out:

10. Walking The Room
9.   Pop Culture Happy Hour
8.   Nerdist
7.   Doug Loves Movies
6.   The Pod F. Tompkast
5.   (tie) Sklarbro Country / The Best Show on WFMU
4.   You Made It Weird
3.   Savage Love
2.   Comedy Bang Bang
1.   WTF

This list was meant to be from ALL realms of podcasts but, as you can see, the majority are comedy-based in nature. Three of them have never been clipped on Succotash before, so we make up for that in this episode, with the exception of Savage Love, hosted by Dan Savage out of Seattle, Washington. The reason being that it is not a comedy p'cast but, instead, a very good and somewhat edgy relationship and sexual advice show. (It's currently #1 on Stitcher's Lifestyle & Health Top 100 list.)

POD MAFIA IRREGULARS

Last episode was our Succotash Christmas Card episode to those podcasts in the Pod Mafia collective of internet shows. But there are also a group of shows that have been very supportive of not just our podcast but a number of the Pod Mafia shows as well, so I'm referring to them as the Pod Mafia Irregulars. And this episode we pay tribute to them by clipping some recent editions of The Brit & The American, The Clutch & Wiggle Experience, The Random Variety Show, Toggle The Switch and Bonn And Obo.

FUNNY MUSIC TIME 

 
This episode's music break is furnished by the duo of Paul & Storm. It's their song Nugget Man, a salute to Robert C. Baker, inventor of the Chicken McNugget. Please click on their name to be linked to their most excellent website, which is festooned with their many musical selections! They also have a podcast you should check out, entitled Paul and Storm Talk About Some Stuff for Five to Ten Minutes (On Average).

BURST O' DURST

This time around, our Ambassador to The Middle, political comedian Will Durst gives us is Ode to Twenty Twelve.

CLIPS

Pop Culture Happy Hour
NPR's entertainment and pop culture round-table podcast features Linda Holmes, Trey Graham, Stephen Thompson & Glen Weldon having spirited discussions of movies, books, television, nostalgia, and anything else that might be making them happy.

Nerdist 
Congrats to Chris Hardwick, Jonah Ray and Matt Myra! Their Nerdist podcast hit Epi300 this past week or so. And to celebrate the moment, they returned to whence they began, doing the podcast in the office of Thomas Lennon’s house. Lennon was their very first guest and (for my money) he is one of the funniest guests in podcasting, ranking up there with the likes of Paul F. Tompkins.

The Best Show on WFMU 
The Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling is a combination music/call-in/comedy radio show originating from New Jersey-based radio station WFMU. The Best Show first aired on October 10, 2000 and, as mentioned up top, they've aired/dropped over 500 episodes!

The Brit & The American
The Brit and The American – namely Alba Lewis and Tom Moore – have translocated to Peru for the next 6 months but continue to pump out the podcasts on a regular basis. We feature a taste from a recent episode, which I think is PRE-Peru. 

The Clutch & Wiggle Experience 
Your hosts Rob and Craig (along with K-Love) take you on a verbal whirlwind as they spin, annihilate and humiliate everything and anything in the world today. Straight from the basement on a real air hockey table, they bring comedy and "justice" the way no one else sees the world. (Their CWERadio.com also rebroadcasts episodes of Succotash each week! 

Random Variety Show Podcast 
Charley Miller is a good friend of Succotash and we’d be remiss if we didn’t include him in this belated Christmas card to the Pod Mafia Irregulars. In this clip Groucho Marx, who handles most of the heavy lifting when it comes to the interviews on  RVSP, talks to Libby Marie and Lishia from the Two Funny Girls podcast.

Toggle the Switch 
Cross-Pacific podcast Toggle The Switch features Susan Wygmans from America and Carl McAteer from Australia. Susan started out as part of the Cuddlah Army, a total fan of Walking The Room with Greg Behrendt and Dave Anthony, and now she finds herself with listeners of her own. We have a snippet of their show talking about “humpy time” and, right after that, we’ve got a little holiday message from the pair that was delayed due to a snag in our Tweetsack. 

BonnAndObo 
Here’s a show that’s definitely Pod Mafia worthy, not to mention they are requesting some guest vocal input from our very own Bill Haywatt. I’ve sent out a request to Bill’s favorite watering holes and, if we can get him upright long enough to record those lines, we’ll get them to you. In this clip, they bring in a very special guest. 

Epic Rant Radio 
As part of Epic Rant Radio with Andre and Eric, they have a feature called “Rounds”, where the two guys go at it over certain subjects. In this clip, it’s the merits of watching old Sex And The City versus Glee.

King Meany 

A few episodes ago, I talked about a new sketch group out of England called King Meany. Liam Beirne, Andy Goddard, Shem Jeffs, Natalie Feehan, and Lizzie Milton were getting ready to start podcasting and now…they have!

Illusionoid
One of my personal favorite podcasts is out of Canada. Illusionoid, with Paul Bates, Lee Smart, and Nug Nahrgang. This was their holiday offering, The Christmas Ninjas, and we play the whole thing.

In the coming year, I'm hoping to have more interesting interviews with podcasters, comedians and interesting people from the world of entertainment. I also hope to keep up a regular release schedule, which should be welcome news for those of you you enjoy a helping of Succotash you can depend on. And I'm going to feature a recipe for actual succotash at the tail end of every episode this year that I've found online. Why? Just to help you to pass the Succotash even more!

— Marc Hershon