For Epi54 of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast, we wade back into the clips and there are a bunch from shows that we’ve never played before. Some of those are part of the lineup at RadioFUBAR.com so I decided to do a "mini-featurette" by playing a quartet of FUBAR clips, courtesy of Mr. Producer over there.
Sidenote of note: I make it a point on this show to pretty much play the samples from different comedy podcasts without much commentary – unless it’s about how they sound technically and whether I think they should work on that – but the reason is to let YOU hear them and set you off on a voyage of discovery…or not. It’s funny but in 54 episodes of doing this show, I have yet to ever hear from a listener whether you like or dislike a single show that that's been featured. Of course, some of the shows I clip come from YOUR suggestions, so those would be “Likes”, of course. Other than than, no one’s ever emailed or tweeted or commented on the home site about shows they either liked or didn’t like. Feel free to do so, if you want.
(The above is not entirely true, as I do hear from people occasionally that let me know that they got turned onto a specific show they might not have otherwise found.)
NEW SUCCOTASH DESIGN
Yes, it's true. The graphic artists down in the Succotash Art Department put together a new image this past week and we’ve got it up on our merch in The Succotashery. It’s the two most basic ingredients of succotash: Lima beans + corn + a pot. There are no words so you have to do the math yourself wto figure out that the answer's Succotash. Although on some of the t-shirts and the tote bag we have the classic Succotash logo on the other side. Just click on the Succotashery link on the website to grab yourself some of our hot new look.
THE COUNTDOWN
Here’s this week’s The 10 Most Active in the Stitcher Top 100 Comedy Podcast List:
37. Walking The Room +37
63. By The Way: In Conversation with Jeff Garlin -19
64. Dining with Doug and Karen +211
65. The Naughty Show -18
73. Todd n’ Tyler Radio Empire +306
84. The Onion -43
86. About Last Night -27
88. Mike And Tom Eat Snacks +19
89. Alonzo Bodden: Who’s Paying Attention? -19
95. The Best Medicine Show +128
LIVE APPEARANCES!
Most comedians with podcasts get to use them as a way to plug upcoming shows. Now I get that chance! I'm performing in a new style of live show we're calling Speechless and we have a kind of "beta test" version going up next Friday night at the 9th Street Independent Film Center at 145 9th Srteet (at Minna), Suite 101, in downtown San Francisco. It's a little like a Powerpoint-based version of the Set List Show, except our performers have to deliver a presentation on a random topic which they then have a set of never-seen-before random slides in a PowerPoint deck. The show's at 8 PM, tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door.
Then on Monday, April Fools' Day, I'll be appearing with the April's Fools Show at the 142 Throckmorton Theatre in downtown Mill Valley. The show features the likes of our own Will Durst as well as Johnny Steel, Bob Sarlatte, Michael Bossier, Dick Bright, and a bunch of other funny folks doing spoken word, standup, music and maybe a little improv, too! That show starts at 7:30 PM and should be a lot of fun.
BURSTS OF DURST
Because this epi is dropping a little late, we have TWO Bursts O' Durst with political comedian Will Durst to play. So I'm playing one near the top of the show and the second in Durst's usual position as the headliner for the show.
MUSICAL INTERLUDE
At the end of this episode's TweetSack section, I feature Wine & Twitter, a new song from sci-fi/comedy songster John Anealio. He's making this single free to download as well, just by going to http://Jon Anealio.com!
CLIPS
The Paul Mecurio Show
This new show by comedian Paul Mecurio is on the SideShow Network and the clip we have, from Epi7, is Part Two of his interview with Lewis Black. It’s a great interview and I did a review of Paul’s show last week for This Week In Comedy Podcasts on Splitsider.com.
The RadioFUBAR Mini-Featurette Set
I got an email a couple of weeks ago from Frank, AKA “Mr. Producer” at RadioFUBAR.com where they have a lot of podcasts on their roster. So I said send me a few clips and I'll play a sampling from their lineup. Here are the four we're showing on this episode:
The Matt Ruefer 4 Hours of Power One Hour Podcast
This show features Matt Ruefer, Pete, Jacob and Mr. Producer as they talk about anything and everything (mostly nerdy.) They almost always talk about Star Trek, Star Wars or some other nerd stuff. In this clip, the guys talk about the leak of the original star wars cast have been cast for the new version. They play on RadioFUBAR.com Wednesdays at 9pm Central.
Chick n’ Dick
Chick n’ Dick we have actually featured on Succotash before. The co-host, John, used to be part of a duo that did a show called the Truth or Truth Podcast. Chick n' Dick is another "stream of conscience" podcast with John and Tara, a husband and wife team, along with their friend Uriah. They are LIVE on RadioFUBAR.com Saturdays at 7pm Central.
The N3rdG4sm Lulzcast
The N3rdG4sm (pronounced nerdgasm) Lulzcast is four guys (LJ, Joe Keg, Jerry H Christ and Silent Dave) talking about all things nerd: Movies, phones, TV, game consoles and such. It's played on RadioFUBAR.com Thursdays at 7:00pm Central.
Uniformed Opinions
Uniformed Opinions, while not technically a comedy, is four veterans (Ben, Noam, Frank and Silent Dave) from different services talking about different stuff. They give their opinions on different things from a veteran's point of view. The show tends to be funny because they use typical military gallows humor. It plays on RadioFUBAR.com Wednesdays at 7pm Central.
So that's the mini-featurette lineup from RadioFUBAR.com - hop on over to theri site and check out all their offerings!
Sal & Angelo Podcast
Sal Calanni and Angelo Lorenzetti are San Francisco comedians and they’ve been interviewing mostly comedian from the area, including those who have done well, moved and then come back to eitehr work, visit or live. Sal recently interviewed Kevin Avery, who has been working as the head writer on W. Kamau Bell’s Comedy Central Show Totally Biased.
Into Your Head Podcast
Into Your Head is a podcasts is out of Ireland and host Neal (that's all - just Neal) has cranked out 670 episodes. It's amazing that it's taken me this much time to get around to clipping it. Good stuff - his delivery reminds me a bit of an Irish version of comedian Emo Philips.
Sweet Feathery Jesus
Booze, Belasco & Dr. P - the boys at Sweet Feathery Jesus - have come up with a new way to get around the N-word in rap songs…by using another N-word.
Podcheese
Another show I’ve been wanting to get on is Podcheese. One of the co-hosts, Benny Michaels, made it too easy NOT to clip them this episode by sending in a clip featuring what he says is a showcase of he and fellow co-host Josh Bennett's "masterful" improvisational skills.
That whole pile of clippage is for you. Please remember as you carry those out into the world, to remember to pass the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon
This week's a mostly clipless week on Succotash. Stockpiling a bunch for the next episode while I devote the majority of Epi53 to my interview with Matt Weinhold. In addition to his long history as a standup comedian, Matt's be involved in writing and helping to produce a lot of television, web, and film projects as well. Included in that dossier: Writer and voice actor for MTV’s The Super Adventure Team; a writer and co-creator with Greg Proops on The Amazing Colossal Show, appeared in the Star Trek documentary Trekkies, written on tons of other TV including BBC America’s The Nerdist, Style Network’s The Dish, and used to be part of the Fashion Police commentary team for US magazine. You can also still get Matt's comedy CD, Dead Funny, by clicking on the link or on iTunes.
In the realm of podcasting, Matt's been podguesting with the likes of Jackie Kashian on Dork Forest and more frequently on The Dana Gould Hour. But he's in the process of turning what was a YouTube experiment into a full on video/audio podcast and we talk (and play) a bit from his Monster Party concept during our interview.
(Fair notice: We recorded the interview at the Coffee Fix in Studio City, CA. While it's a great place for coffee, the cavernous space, loud background music, blenders, grinders, and clanking utensils made for a listener-challenging environment. We've done what we could to pull out some of the room noise but there are portions of the interview that are somewhat hard to hear. Apologies. Welcome to the world of guerrilla podcasting...)
THE COUNTDOWN
Rather than do a straight-ahead Top 10 countdown from this week's Stitcher's Top 100 Comedy Podcasts — because the 'casts at the top don't seem to change very much - this week we introduce "The 10 Most Active in the Stitcher Top 100 Comedy Podcast List"! It was based on an idea I got from Ed Wallick, host of the Don't Quit Your Daycast podcast. I've ranked ten shows by their relative position on the chart, but also included the number of spaces they moved in the past week. Or points they go - I can't really figure out that that up or down number is supposed to represent considering that one of the shows — SModcast — moved DOWN 101 points on a chart that only has 100 spaces.
14. Girl On Guy with Aisha Tyler +24
41. Bullseye with Jesse Thorn +14
46. SModcast -101
52. The Onion +55
61. The David Feldman Show -26
64. Superego +85
71. Alonzo Bodden: Who’s Paying Attention? +29
80. Sex Squad +13
91. Loveline +24
99. The Ricky Gervais Podcast -20
CORRECTIONS DEPARTMENT
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| Phil Leirness |
Last week I played a clip from the Chillpak Hollywood Hour, one of the first podcasts I ever listened to, and I mentioned that hosts Phil Leirness and Dean Haglund had been doing the show for over 4 years. My bad. It’s been SIX years. Not only that, I incorrectly gave their website. It’s ChillpakHollywood.com (As I did mentioned last show, they DO still have a MySpace page, though.) I’m told that my voicemail apology to them will be a special guest on the next episode of CHH. Just got word that pre-production is underway on The Lady Killers, a new feature film by Phil and Dean. If you get a chance, check out their enthralling documentary The Truth Is Out There.
ME BEING ME
I'm a guest on the latest Seven Days A Geek episode of Podcasting 101. The Angry Ginger and I chat it up about how simple it really is to kick off a show, how to figure out what a podcast should be about and a bunch of other inside baseball chatter. Click on the show link and check it out for some good (mostly) clean conversation about the blood n' guts of podcasting.
SING IT, CHET
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| Chet Haase |
Friend-of-Succotash Chet Haase has sent along a nifty little ditty in the wake of the changing of the Pope called Papal Reign, a parody to Prince's Purple Rain. It's timely and funny and you'll find it at the tail end of Epi53. Thanks, Chet!
DON'T FORGET DURST
Our Ambassador to the Middle Will Durst offers a litany of things that go awry as we move into Upper Middle age in this week's Burst O' Durst.
I also get into our TweetSack a bit this week, including some real honest-to-God emails. I read off a long list of Twitter handles from folks who have retweeted, favorited and otherwise been kind to Succotash this past week. It's really appreciated and makes doing the show worthwhile knowing that people are enjoying the experience and sharing that enjoyment with others. Or, as I like to think about it, passing the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon
This title refers to the fact that we're back to an all-clip show this week. No interviews (although we have a goodie coming up next week!) but I did want to thank everyone who commented, tweeted, emailed and otherwise gave me feedback on last week’s Epi51.5, my I-5 Extra Episode. It was experimental, really – just me recording me as I drove back to San Francisco from Los Angeles up Interstate 5. Maybe I’ll try it again on my next road trip. And it gives me the confidence to play a little bit more between clips of the regular podcast, so we’ll see where that goes.
To the left is a shot of the sun setting as I trundled through the San Juaquin Valley at the wheel of Studio F, my Fiat 500. (It's not that picturesque but I post it because I love how pissed off people get when they think of me taking pictures while driving...)
THE COUNTDOWN
I mention in this episode that I'm thinking of dropping the Stitcher Top 10 Comedy Podcast Countdown that we've been featuring on Succotash since the beginning of the year. Reason? The shows just don't change positions enough to be very interesting. None of these, for instance, are unfamiliar:
10. Deathsquad
9. Doug Loves Movies
8. Real Time with Bill Maher
7. SModcast
6. The Nerdist
5. Mohr Stories
4. NPR: Car Talk Podcast
3. WTF with Marc Maron
2. The Adam Carolla Show
1. The Joe Rogan Experience
On the other hand, for the first time I also read down the BOTTOM Ten of the Stitcher Comedy Podcasts. Lots of action and places being swapped down there in the cellar. So maybe I'll just do that from now on…
91. Beauty & Da Beast w/Joey Diaz & Felicia Michaels (down 10!)
92. Laugh Out Loud from CBC Radio (up 9!)
93. The Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling
94. The Pod F. Tompkast
95. Walking The Room
96. The Ricky Gervais Podcast (down 13!)
97. Alonzo Bodden: Who's Paying Attention? (up 29!!!)
98. Dining With Doug & Karen (down 31!!!)
99. 76th Street Pod
100. #WeNerdHard
DURST
This episode our Ambassador to the Middle Will Durst ponders the ex-pontiff and what sort of mischief the former Pope Benedict might get into in his retirement.
THE CLIPS
JakeThis of Jake Johannsen
Comedian Jake Johannsen's podcast is pure Jake. Even when he has guests, it’s got that "Jake" feel to it. I used to hang out with Jake and his guest this latest episode, Bobby Slayton, a lot, as we were all in the San Francisco comedy scene. They were both as the Aspen Comedy Festival recently and Bobby recounts part of a story from when he got to have dinner with Woody Allen.
A.D.D. Comedy Podcast
David Razowsky is the host, creative force, and backbone of the A.D.D. Comedy Podcast. Ian Foley is the producer and creator. They talk to a lot of comedians, most of whom have come out of the ranks of improv, but also actors and writers. We clip part of David's great interview with screenwriter Carl Gottlieb.
Chillpak Hollywood Hour
Friends-of-Succotash and podcast royalty Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness continue to fascinate with their Chillpak Hollywood Hour podcast. They get into X-Files memorabilia by way of an email from a listener in this clip. Oh, yes, and they still have a page on MySpace.
Too Heavy Too Skydive
Gotta clip in from the guys over at Too Heavy Too Skydive, which is still one of my favorite podcast titles out there. This is Matt's interview with Kai, no last name, who you may have seen on the internet a couple of weeks ago when he stopped a rampaging guy by pulling out a handaxe.
Making New Friends
Pat O’Rourke invites people into his kitchen every week and I guess gets along with all of them because his podcast is called Making New Friends. He sent this clip along and maybe I lost some notes along the way because, even though I checked the website, I’m not sure who his new friend may be.
Sup Dude
I THINK the Sup Dude podcast is from England so it kicks off our Triple Shot British Invasion clips this show. AJ & Nathan host a show about a bunch of stuff and yet seem to almost always have time to review a James Bond movie. Here they’re getting into Her Majesty’s Secret Service starring that one-off Bond, George Lazenby.
It’s Not Soccer
Adam Barker of Barker Podcasts is back with his It’s Not Soccer podcasting partner Billy Bilo. Adam didn’t send a clip but he did send where to find this clip in their lastest episode which, really, is the next best thing. It’s about a package delivery that happened to a friend that went south.
Uncle Arthur’s Bollocks
This clip is a last minute entry to this week’s show, suggested by the aforementioned Adam Barker who says that it’s a great representative of “north English humour”. I guess that’s humor with a “u” after the “r”, right? Uncle Arthur seems difficult to find a lot about so just enjoy his ranting about fat people, won’t you?
Pod Awful
Jesse P-S has kicked off Season 5 of his Pod Awful podcast. His guest, Mike Blejer, a comedian and host of his own podcast, Malignant Brain Humor, and he spend part of the kickoff episode trying to track down a fortune teller of sorts…
Salty Language
I’m not quite sure what the main thrust of the Salty Language podcast is about. I think it’s a “shootin’ the shit” show, with hosts Bryan, Tony & Tate doing just that. Here’s a chunk that spins off of reading a news item, so that should be a clue, right?
Red Mud and Rolling Hills
The Red Mud & Rolling Hills podcast is a sister/brother show, with Dawn Smith and her bro Bo Tate being real from the foothills of South Carolina. Their website proclaims that they use swear words as “sentence enhancers” and there is no shortage of them in the clip we have, where they’re talking about footwear and handsomeness.
Once again, we've done our job. Now get out there and do yours: Pass the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon
