Welcome to EPISODE SEVENTY of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. 70!!! Seems like only yesterday I was asking myself "How do I get my voice to come out of that sound thingee?" I estimate that, in these first 70 episodes, that we have played over 630 podcast clips. Listenership continues to grow. And we have consistently been showing up on iTunes' "What's Hot" section as well as being recently featured on Stitcher.
<— Here's a screen shot of our logo floating amongst other podcast friends (and strangers) on last week's "What's Hot" page in iTunes' podcast section.
I'm getting ready to take this show on the road next week for the 2nd Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival. I got my shipment of Succotash buttons – they’re like pins for your clothes but WAY cooler because they hang on with this magnet backed thingee. I'm going to give those away at our table in the Podcast Lab at the PodFest, so look for me. I’ve even got a couple of big green Succotash banners to hang up so you can find me easier. You can get your tickets for online at http://LAPodFest.com. I’ll have my mics set up and will interview any comedy podcasters who stop by!
Last week I had the honor and pleasure of meeting, hanging out with, and watch Paul Bates, Lee Smart, and Nug Nahrgang – the cast of podcasting’s Illusionoid – when they were in town for the San Francisco Improv Festival. They did a fantastic job and I’m going to be featuring an interview with them AND the show they recorded live at the Festival on an upcoming episode of Succotash. You can actually hear that episode now – it dropped yesterday – called The Asteroid Juggler! Get up to iTunes, Stitcher or their homesite at http://Illusionoid.com. There’s even a little pre-show chat with ME on the episode!
NO BURST O' DURST
Our Ambassador to the Middle, political comedian Will Durst was enjoying a well-deserved week off following San Francisco's annual Comedy Day. So there's no Burst O' Durst commentarythis episode. He'll be back next time. In lieu of Mr. Durst's appearance, I'm featuring a funny little ditty called Questions by friend-of-Succotash Chet Haase.
CLICK THE BANNER!
You see that banner up there? The one near the top of our website? That can whisk you magically off to the Amazon website where you can buy pretty much anything you want. (Except, as Larry Miller is wont to say on his This Week With Larry Miller podcast, "a REAL Amazon!") The only difference by going there from here instead of right to there from…somewhere else…is that Succotash receives a kickback for showing you the way to go. So help us out for helping you out, won't you?
THE TEN MOST ACTIVE SHOWS IN THE STITCHER TOP 100 COMEDY PODCAST LIST
Normally I don't even touch the Top Ten shows on Stitcher's Top 100 Comedy Podcasts because there's very little movement up there. Maron, Rogan, Carolla…y'know, the usual suspects. (Oh, and still very mysteriously, Car Talk. ) But this week Bill Maher managed to muscle his way in there, so good on him! Here's how the whole list shook out for this week…
07. Real Time with Bill Maher +24
32. Girl On Guy with Aisha Tyler +48
50. Uhh Yeah Dude +12
56. The Champs with Neal Brennan & Moshe Kasher -19
65. The David Feldman Show -17
67. Dining With Doug & Karen +18
77. The Cracked Podcast -22
92. The Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling +14
95. Kevin Pollack’s Chat Show +18
100. Who’s Paying Attention +25
As for OUR Stitcher rank, we are once again on the move! Consistency IS key in this podcast game, don’t let anyone fool you. Miss a week and your ranking sinks like a stone. Last week we were at #6721 but THIS week Succotash jumps up 2,182 place to end up at number 4539!
THE CLIPS
Girl On Guy
As you can see above, Aisha Tyler’s Girl On Guy leapt back into the Top 100 this week, up 48 places, with the kick-off of her third season. (I still don’t know what constitutes a season of podcasts, by the way. It seems pretty arbitrary from show to show. Hell, at Succotash we’re still in our first season and we’re 70 shows and 2 and a half years in!) Aisha welcomes Jack Osbourne to her show. Jack’s the son of Ozzy Osbourne and he talks some about dealing with the reality of that experience.
Doug Loves Movies
I wanted to pull a slice from this show which is one of my regular "listens" and an episode he had last week really have me laughing hard. (Which must look weird if anyone is seeing me, out on a wilderness trail at 5:30 in the morning, running full speed in the dark and laughing like a maniac…) He had first-time guest Nick Offerman, from Parks & Rec, and returning guests Jon Hamm and filmmaker “Werner Herzog”, which is in quotes because he’s portrayed by Paul F. Tompkins. In this episode, Herzog is really on his game, too. (Don't forget to check out Doug's newest offering, Doug Loves Minis - which are some of the shorter shows now under one label.)
All We Know
The All We Know clip was grabbed for us by Tyson Saner, our Honorary Associate Producer (he's got three of 'em in this epi - thanks, TS!) It’s with Benny and Rafi Fine, AKA The Fine Brothers and is described (on their Tumblr page) as "A sometimes ignorant, occasionally uninformed, irresponsible news podcast." The content is largely driven by audience suggestions through Twitter and Facebook. Tyson tells me that All We Know isn't a weekly or even bi-monthly podcast lately but that could be because The Fine Brothers also produce weekly content for at least TWO YouTube channels.
No Pressure To Be Funny
For This Week In Comedy Podcasts on Stitcher.com, I’m reviewing No Pressure To Be Funny, a British podcast I’ve featured before. The brainchild of Nick Revell, Alistair Barrie and Jake Waring, there are lots of other folks involved in this topical live monthly show from the SoHo Theatre, including a panel of journalists and pundits that changes every show. They just kicked off their 6th season with Angela Barnes, Rich Peppiatt, Dan Smith, and Richard Herring, along with host James O’Brien, who keeps it all together. (We've actually got TWO bits from NPTBF - Nick Revell with an emergency bulletin about handbags and a song about randy pandas by Steve Gribbin.
Shane And Friends
Here’s a another show harvested by Tyson Saner for us. It features Shane Dawson along with his producer Lauren Schnipper. This is a new podcast – only been around since June – and there are nine episodes so far. This clip is from Epi8 and features guest Harley Morenstein of Epic Meal Time, a very popular YouTube web series.
The Clutch & Wiggle Experience
We didn't have to go looking for a clip from Clutch & Wiggle - one showed up in the Tweetsack this week! It seems that hosts Rob, Craig and their new "3rd Mic" The Ditz created an accidental "He-Man PSA" while talking about proper pooping etiquette. These are the same folks that run http://CWERadio.com, by the way, where you can hear episodes of Succotash "randomly replayed" during the week!)
Air-Raid
We’ve featured the Air-Raid podcast with Aaron Roden several times before. Aaron’s heavily into the music scene in the Seattle area but he’s also into comedy there, too. And he manages to snag some great interviews with comedians who may be on everyone’s radar but not necessarily getting on podcasts too often. This week he got a hold of SNL veteran Jim Breuer and talked about a bunch of stuff…
The Schmoes Know
The last of this week’s clip contributions – or “cliptributions” - from Tyson Saner. The schmoes in this case are Kristian Harloff and Mark Ellis and their podcast talk about all things entertainment. In their Epi87, they have two guest schmoes – Maria Menounos and Hal Rudnick – who discuss Seth McFarland’s hosting of the last Oscars telecast and also about how subjective humor is.
That's all the Epi70 that there is (except for a really long recipe for "spicy succotash" after the closing credits.) Thanks for listening and please remember to pass the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon
Welcome to the blog entry counterpart to Episode 69 of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. The biggest news for this show in the past week is that we're now recommended listening by Stitcher Smart Radio! That's right, particularly if you’re a podcaster just starting out and want to get a handle on this baby widecast medium. Just a couple of days ago, Stitcher mentioned that my appearance on the Podcaster 101 show is featured in their “So You Think You Can Podcast” Top Ten Helpful Tips section!
I’ve been tweeting this past week (via @SuccotashShow) that Succotash will have a table set up in the Podcast Lab at this year’s Los Angeles Podcast Festival, which is happening in a couple of weeks — October 4 thru 6 in Santa Monica. You can get more information and get tickets at http://LAPodfest.com.
Anybody can stop by our table – if we actually get a table – but I will have a Succotash banner and be giving away some cool magnetic buttons I just ordered – they’re like pins without the pin and feature the Succotash yellow and green logo. (they haven't even been delivered yet but, once they're here, I'll post a picture of them...) So do stop by if you’re at the fest. And, if YOU'RE a comedy podcaster, we’ll have our mics set up and I’ll do an interview with you which we’ll feature on the show.
Some friends of Succotash are in town this week. In town meaning San Francisco at the San Francisco Improv Festival. And the friends are the cast of ILLUSIONOID!, one of our favorite podcasts. Paul Bates, Lee Smart, and Nug Nahrgang – the best name in podcasting – will be performing on Wednesday night, September 18th, at the Eureka Theater. So, if you’re in the Bay Area, buy tickets and join me in checking these guys out live and in person.
LIVE APPEARANCE
I’ll actually be performing live and in person a little later this month. Friday, September 27th, I’m going to be part of Marsh Jam, a new improv free-for-all that’s going up at the Marsh Cabaret in Berkeley. I think that’s at 8:30 and you can find out more at TheMarsh.org.
HONORARY ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
Special thanks again this show to Tyson Saner, whom I've dubbed as our Honorary Associate Producer for providing us with clips to some podcast he's discovered This episode in particular is loaded with Saner clips and it's a pleasure to have those available.
THE TEN MOST ACTIVE ON THE STITCHER TOP 100 COMEDY PODCAST LIST
Every week (or so) we're tracking the shows on Stitcher's Top 100 Comedy Podcast list that show the most action, either up OR down. Here's who distinguished themselves this week:
16. Bertcast’s Podcast +12
29. The Champs with Neal Brennan & Moshe Kasher +29
45. Jordan, Jesse, GO +31
61. Smodcast >> FeAB -27
66. The David Feldman Show -17
70. Dining With Doug & Karen +25
78. The Read -28
85. The Insanity Check +21
86. The Jack Blood Show +16
98. Keith and the Girl Podcast -20
DOUBLE DOSE O' DURST AGAIN
With this episode, I think I've finally caught up with the backlog of our Burst O' Durst feature, but only because we're playing one more double header with America's "Raging Moderate" Will Durst.
THE LAST OF BOGANWOOD, SEASON 1
We feature the eighth and final chapter of Boganwood, Season 1, this show, along with the last snippet of my interview with this podcast miniseries creator, Jason McNamara. It's a bittersweet end of our having played all the episode. Bitter because it's ending, sweet because we've been keeping you occupied while Jabs (Jason to his mum) has been getting Boganwood, Season TWO underway! Check it out at http://Boganwood.com.
THE CLIPS
Jordan, Jesse, GO!
This podcast moved up 31 spots this past week in the Stitcher Top 100 so that’s a good place to start. This is one of the shows in the Maximum Fun podcast arsenal. And they are about to hit Episode 300, so you know they’ve got a handle on this podcast thing. Featuring Jesse Thorn and Jordan Morris co-hosting what they refer to as “a freewheeling comedy podcast about life in your 20’s”. The most recent episode featured a visit with comedian and writer Liz Feldman and they got into talking about a place Jesse takes his 2-year-old.
The Insanity Check
This show, which got into the Top 100 on Stitcher’s Comedy Podcast this week at #85, is hosted by Kriss, Ryce, Dylan and a few other guests here and there. The show focuses on crazy things like working in the corporate world, politics, the entertainment industry and society as a whole. They’ve been dropping shows twice a week – I envy them – and so they recently sailed past 400 episodes. Their latest – Epi408 – is entitled The Can’t U Niggas Troll Convention.
Harmontown
This past week I reviewed this podcast from Dan Harmon, the creator of NBC’s Community – you know he’s back this season, after leaving last year – and also with Jeff Davis, a great improvisor from Whose Line Is It Anyway. My review is up as part of This Week In Comedy Podcasts on Splitsider.com. It’s a very entertaining show – and they’ve been on for only 2 more episodes than Succotash – maybe there's hope for me yet!
Podhouse 90: The Wonderful Pundits of Oz
Frank Coniff is a very funny writer and comedian - he’s currently
working on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell - and has come up with a
great concept that bends the parameters of podcasting. They’re these
full-length musical comedy plays, with the title springboard off early
TV’s “Playhouse 90”. Tyson Saner snipped us off a clip from The
Wonderful Pundits of Oz, which picks up after the events as we know them
from The Wizard of Oz. Great cast, too, with Coniff, Melissa Villasenor, Dave "Gruber" Allen, J. Elvis Weinstein, David Higgens, Laraine Newman, Emo Phillips, Dana Gould, Mark Thompson, Jamie Haddad Tompkins, and Joe Keyes.
Combat Radio
We haven’t played anything from our old pal Ethan Dettenmeier over at Combat Radio in awhile, so it was nice to have Tyson send in a clip from a recent show. Ethan had a couple of comedians in – Eric Mark and Justin Rivera – then threw in the author of Why Are You Single? Sonia Everett McKie just to stir the pot…
Inverse Delirium
Our buddy, Geoffrey Welchman, over at the Inverse Delirium podcast, shot us in a clip this week – actually, he sent it in a couple of weeks ago but I lost it somehow. So he’s re-sent it in because he realized that the last couple of clip from Inverse Delirium we played didn’t actually have him in them. Here he is now, in a piece about EVPs or Electronic Voice Phenomena.
SModcast >> Edumacation
If Kevin Smith’s Smodcast brand were in grocery stores, they would have tons of consumer “facings”, as they’re called, because there are so many different flavors. Tyson Saner sent us in a clip from Edumacation, where Kevin gets schooled by someone new every time. This time, it’s Tonight Show writer Andy McElfresh who gives us the straight scoop on something called prosopagnosia, where the person can't identify people by their appearances, even celebrities.
Evil Teddy Bear Podcast
Korey Epps and Thomas Fine have hosted over 100 epis of their show. The tagline on their homesite reads: “Two film freaks, one podcast and a shitload of movies.” So this is mainly a movie review/tribute/slapfest. The hosts and their guest, Steve Sievers, about their first Kevin Smith movie experiences.
That's is for Epi69. It's pretty jam-packed so I hope you enjoy it. See you soon and, while i'm out, would you mind passing the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon
I was going to start off this episode with a ramble – not a rant, but a ramble – about the medium of podcasting based on an epiphany of sorts which I had while thinking about this show. I was going to be about I suddenly realized that podcasting really is its own medium. Some people, in trying to describe it, refer to it as “radio on the internet”.
And, in a sense, I suppose it is.
As much as back when television was introduced, it was referred to by many as “radio with pictures.” And, before that, radio was often referred to as “vaudeville for the ears.” You get the idea.
Anyway, before I could put my ramble together, I ended up interviewing this episode’s guest: Comedian, actor AND now podcaster Jimmy Shubert. And we end up discussing that idea in some detail, so I’ll let that go for now. Jimmy and I talked about a bunch of things about his career and one of the defining periods in his development as a nationally touring headliner was traveling on the road with, and opening for, Sam Kinison.
In addition to being a national headlining comedian, Jimmy has shown up in some movies and TV shows in various guest appearances, including Go, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Italian Job, Monk, Two Broke Girls, and a bunch of other projects. He’s recently added podcasting to his resumé and, less than a half dozen episodes ago, he kicked off The Jimmy Shubert Show.
(He's also a good sport. We had Skyped ourselves an interview last week which then crashed and burned on yet another bum hard drive while I was trying to edit it during a business trip cross country. As soon as I called him up, Jimmy didn't even let me get past the second "ahem, you see what happened was…" before he was volunteering to do it again.)
Because of the length of our interview, plus playing Chapter 7 of teh Boganwood podcast mini-series from Australia, we only have time for a couple of podcast clips this show. But it's a full show - including TWO Bursts O' Durst with comedian Will Durst and an end-of-the-show recipe for Irish-style succotash by Chef Shamus, courtesy of Kat Sorens of The Rigid Fist and the Strange Times podcasts.
This Week In Comedy Podcasts
One more clip we have this episode is from The Paul Mecurio Show, which I also reviewed this week over on Splitsider.com for This Week In Comedy Podcasts. Paul's guest is one of my favorite comics out there: Brian Regan.
The 10 Most Active Podcasts in The Stitcher Top 100 Comedy Podcasts
For the uninitiated, this weekly feature isn't concerned with the podcasts at the TOP of Stitcher's Top 100 Comedy Podcast list - mostly because they never change much. Instead, we take time out to look at which shows have shown the most significant movement - either way - up or down.
28. Bertcast’s Podcast -15
34. SModcast > FeAB +60
49. The David Feldman Show +18
52. Moment Of Clarity +27
68. The Champs with Neal Brennan & Moshe Kasher -32
76. Jordan, Jesse, GO -30
83. The Dana Gould Hour -17
86. SModcast > Get Up On This +61
95. Dining With Doug & Karen -40
100. Super Best Friendcast! +99
The Clips
The Chillpak Hollywood Hour
Hosts Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness have just finished shooting their new movie The Ladykillers and the most recent epi of Chillpak was recorded at the wrap party itself. In this brief clip, they chat with the actor in their cast who is also hosting the party at his home.
The Paul Mecurio Show
Recent guest on OUR show, Paul Mecurio, hosts comedian Brian Regan on HIS show. You can read my review of the show, as mentioned above, over on Splitsider.com. In the clip we have, Paul - who has been an opening act for Brian over the years - gets him talking about his love of coffee and his problem with hotel room numbers.
The Super Best Friendcast!
This show just squeaked in at #100 on Stitcher Top 100 Comedy Podcasts this week. As I mention on the show, I'm not sure this qualifies as a comedy podcast per se (but then NPR's Car Talk has been in the Top TEN of the comedy podcasts forever, so who am I to judge?) It is, however, an entertaining show about games - mostly video games - and it's for those who are REALLY into video games. Matthew tells us about a couple of them and his co-hosts Woolie, Liam, and Patt kick into the chatter.
The Stand-Up Chronicles
Congrats to our friend Adam Harris for hitting Episode 200! His consistently solid show's format is most him going one-on-one with comedians from all over. The clip we have for you is a piece of his chat with Tom Wilson, who tends to be recognized most often from his role as Biff in the Back To The Future movies, although his turn as the harassed police captain in this summer's The Heat let audiences see him in a different light. As did his role as Coach Fredricks in the short-lived but cult fave TV show Freaks & Geeks, which is what Adam talks to him about in this clip.
Looking at the page, it doesn't seem like it, but this episode of Succotash is the second longest we've done, clocking in at about an hour and forty minutes. Don't sweat it - it's FREE! (Although you shouldn't feel shy about A) Clicking our Donate button at our homesite, SuccotashShow.com; or B) rating and reviewing us up on iTunes. Or BOTH!) In the meantime, pass the Succotash!
– Marc Hershon
Welcome to EPISODE SEVENTY of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. 70!!! Seems like only yesterday I was asking myself "How do I get my voice to come out of that sound thingee?" I estimate that, in these first 70 episodes, that we have played over 630 podcast clips. Listenership continues to grow. And we have consistently been showing up on iTunes' "What's Hot" section as well as being recently featured on Stitcher.
