Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Succotash Epi100: Sayin' Adios To Season One!

First off, I'm kicking off this Epi100 show blog by revealing the all new Succotash logo for Season 2! Designed by Page Branson, co-host of the Level 7 Access podcast, this spiffy new look will soon be available in the Succotashery on shirts n' stuff.

Okay. So, my ORIGINAL plan was to do the first live Succotash show for Epi100 but the occasion was dovetailing with my wife and I making a move to a new place AND me making a move to a new job.

I was also afraid that the thing would turn out to be not quite so tremendous an extravaganza as I was picturing in my mind.

Instead, I planned a trip back to Studio P to visit with our Engineer/Producer Joe Paulino. We have a nice discussion in studio about where the show has been and where it's going, as well as a mini-state of the podcast form as it exists today. As we also discuss, Succotash has gone beyond having to rely on Joe to cobble together our nonsense but he is still my rock and my inspiration. Plus he puts together great stuff for our show all the time.

Coming up in this Epi100, our final show of Succotash, The Comedy Podcast Podcast, Season 1, we FINALLY have a new Boozin’ with Bill segment, wherein our booth announcer Bill Heywatt teaches me (and you) how to whip up a special concoction in honor of our centennial ‘sode of Succotash. Embarrassingly, it called “Up The Hershon Highway”. I include the formula here.

Our sponsor Henderson’s Pants has created a new pantaloon specifically in honor of our 100th episode.

We also have a double dose of political comedian Will Durst with our Burst O’ Durst. (If you're in or near the San Francisco Bay Area this holiday season, be sure to catch Durst and his cadre of comics who are appearing in the Big Fat Year End Kiss Off Comedy Show XXII December 26 - January 3, 2015.
Cast of the Big Fat Year End Kiss Off Comedy Show

 Oh, and we dip into the Tweetsack this episode as well. We got a pile of congratulatory messages – thanks so much to those of you who took time out to send those along, either called into the Succotash Hotline or sent in to us. We play those throughout the show, including a really nice message from our own Associate Producer Tyson Saner, whose become a vital component to make this show happen. (Special thanks to Dana Carvey, who supplied the messages from Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Paul McCartney, and Michael Caine!)

We’ve got some clips, as per usual - none of which have anything to do with our 100th episode milestone.

CLIPS


Chillpak Hollywood Hour
Our friends in podcasting – Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness – of the Chillpak Hollywood Hour, have been doing a series of pre-recorded shows and, as usual when that happens, there are not a lot of Succotash mentions for us to replay. This week, they sent along a very special Happy 100 episode message! (By the way, their show last week with guest Suli McCullough last week was dynamite! It touched on race and racism, both in and out of the Hollywood business, as well as growing up in Silicon Valley, and was also hilarious at times.)


Screams & Moans
Friend-of-Succotash Megan M recently made her first year as a podcaster with Epi26 of her own Screams & Moans podcast. Also known as @PodcastWhore on Twitter, she's been a big supporter of Succotash. And we’re glad to see her interest in the medium has turned into an avocation. Congrats, Megan! We feature a clip of her awarding the First Place Award to her Most Drunken Listener.

Urban Mamas Podcast
Our Associate Producer Tyson found us this clip from the Urban Mamas podcast out of Portland, Oregon, where Ray Ann Peil and Kelli Martinelli say – via their website – that they are "out to change the world one swear jar at a time." Crammed into this clip are such topics as adoption, the aforementioned swear jars, and negotiating Halloween candy. Joining them as a guest is anotha mutha, Sabrina Williamson.


Wheelbarrow Full Of Dicks
We got a 100th episode congrats message in the Tweetsack from Mike Moore and the gang – Nappier, Travis, and Drunk – over at Wheelbarrow Full of Dicks. It reads: “First off, congratulations on the milestone over there. 100 episodes is an impressive number.  We appreciate all that you do." And they included a clip from a new segment on their show called "Romance Is Dead."  It's basically a sit-com featuring a suburban dad in a post-apocalyptic world whose family who were all bitten and turned to zombies.


Taco Tuesday
Thanks to Podcast Dan and Adam Wolf for their congratulations message. They also included a taste of their Taco Tuesday podcast. These guys do a real combo platter of stuff: tech, music, and comedy. And it’s the only podcast I know of – so far – booming out of Killeen, Texas. In this clip from their Epi16 – it goes back a bit to Thanksgiving time – they’re talking whether to brine a turkey or not, and whether deviled eggs are better with Miracle Whip or mayo.

The Higher Learning Channel
Sometimes the best way to lure in new listeners, as well as to make your show stand out from the crowd, is to give your podcast a high-falutin’ name. Seems to work for The Higher Learning Channel, out of New York City and hosted by Ginzilla and Matthew Sire. It’s just a cover for another pop culture-based podcast, one which features – according to their homesite – “Weirdos. Creatives. Podcasters.” In this clip from Epi14, their guest is comic book creator Pat Reilly and they get into the art of drawing dicks. Yeah, dicks. But classy, comic book dicks.

That’s it! The end of Succotash, Season One! 100 episodes, presented in order and in their entirety. (Plus a handful of mini "halfisodes"…) If you missed any, you should be able to dredge them up at our homesite, http://SuccotashShow.com.

Starting with Episode 101, we switch to our new split format, where shows will either be Succotash Clips or Succotash Chats. And with any luck at all, we’ll start getting them out on a regular basis. Thanks so much for being part of our first season. Hope you’ll stick around to see where we go next with the show.

And please remember to pass the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon




Monday, November 24, 2014

Succotash Epi99: Podfestin' with Todd Glass & Matt Knudsen

You are, once again – unless this is your first time – listening to Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. (Or the Comedy Earfruit Earfruit. Ever since my chat with Superego's Matt Gourley, I’ve become obsessed with renaming the generic podcast with something. What do you think of earfruit?) This is Succotash Epi99! The penultimate episode of Season One. That’s right. Episode 100 will be the final show for our first season.

But that’s next time.

THIS time we have a helluva show for you with not one but TWO interviews that I did when I was at the 3rd Annual LA Podcast Festival at the end of September.You’ll hear my chat with Todd Glass of the Todd Glass Show and with Matt Knudsen from the Grabbing Lunch podcast. (Or earfruit.)


I’ll also be playing clips from both of their podcasts PLUS clips from Picking Favorites, a new podcast on the new Wolfpop Network, the Angry Old Man podcast, Denzel Washington is The Greatest Actor of All Time PERIOD, and Today We Learned teaches us all a little something about the dumbest laws in the United States.

We also have a DOUBLE dose of our Burst O’ Durst segment with comedian Will Durst, a classic Henderson’s Pants commercial, and a musical track from our Associate Producer Tyson Saner that is featured on Combat Radio’s First Christmas Album, which is a great way to help out friend-of-Succotash Ethan Dettenmeier’s Christmas Event for Homeless Children Benefit. You can find out order the album and find out more about the benefit by visiting OUR homesite, http://SuccotashShow.com, and click on the album cover on the right hand side.

Wish Us A Happy 100TH Episode!

If you’re a comedy podcaster or just a regular old listener, there’s still time to get us your “Happy 100th Episode Anniversary!” message for us to play on our one hundredth show. You can call one into the Succotash Hotline, at (818) 921-7212, or email us an MP3 or WAV file to marc@SuccotashShow.com. (Not to throw a challenge out there, but in this episode I'm playing a great 100th episode message in from the guys over at Illusionoid and I’ve got to say that I really appreciate the extra effort that went into it.

PodBay's Top 10 Comedy Podcasts

It’s been TWO months since Stitcher has updated their Top 100 Comedy Podcast List. Not sure what’s going on over there. (Heck, given the nature of technology, maybe my browser is screwed up.) But I’m not able to track podcasts through Stitcher’s site these days so rather than NOT do our Top 10 Most Active Shows On Stitcher's Top 100 Comedy Podcast List, I hopped over to PodBay’s site to harvest their list of the most recent Top 10 Comedy Podcasts according to the live iTunes rankings. (PodBay, by the way, is a GREAT podcast app on iOS and Android, so be sure to check it out if you want a super duper podcast experience!)

1   With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus
2   Psychobabble with Tyler Oakley
3   Welcome to Nightvale
4   WTF with Marc Maron
5   The Joe Rogan Experieince
6   The Nerdist
7   The Adam Carolla Show
8   How Did This Get Made?
9   Bill Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast
10 Not Too Deep With Grace Helbig

A Little Christmas Music

Our own Tyson Saner wrote and performed an instrumental tune that he did for the First Combat Radio Christmas Album to help raise money for Ethan Dettenmeier’s 4th Annual Combat Radio Christmas Event for Homeless Children. You can donate to the Combat Radio Christmas Event at http://www.gofundme.com/ACombatRadioChristmas and get the album for a suitable donation OR go to the right-hand side of our homesite, http://SuccotashShow.com, and click on the Combat Radio Christmas Album. Tyson’s cut is entitled For Christmas and feature in during this episode both under our Tweetsack mentions and then in its entirety at the end of the show. 

The Clips

Denzel Washington is the Greatest Actor of All Time PERIOD 
Last week on Splitsider.com and HuffPost Comedy I reviewed this new podcast, one of Wolfpop’s new shows, hosted by recent Succotash special guest W. Kamau Bell and Kevin Avery, a soon-to-be guest on this show. Both of these guys spent a lot of their formative funny years as San Francisco comedians, then Kamau got his own show, Totally Biased, for a while on FX and FXX. Kevin was head writer on that show and, when it got cancelled, he found a place on the writing staff on John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight on HBO. The two of them decided to put together a podcast about one of their favorite people, Denzel Washington, to let everyone know what a terrific actor they think he is.


The Todd Glass Show
I was glad I got a chance to sit with Todd Glass at this year’s LA Podcast Festival. I know him a little bit from the LA comedy scene and he’s played in Northern California during the past couple of years and we got to hangout just before he started HIS podcast, the Todd Glass Show. Before I get to our chat, I wanted to play a little piece of a recent epi of his show, one featuring guest Patton Oswalt.


Picking Favorites
If you were a fan of NBC’s series Chuck, about a nerdy big box store employee who get a computer stuffed into his noggin, you know Zachary Levi, the star of the show. David Coleman was the propmaster on that show, kind of the Q of TV comedy spy show, if you will. Together, they started a business called The Nerd Machine and now they have this Wolfpop podcast, Picking Favorites, started with the help of a comedian who goes by the name Razzle Dangerously, who also host a show on the Nerdist network called Today We Learned, which we’ll be playing a clip from momentarily. Then they drafted Tyler Labine, a hilarious actor from shows like Reaper, The Sons of Tucson, and the movie Tucker & Dale vs Evil. Picking Favorites starts with three topics each episode and the hosts and guests go round-robin style, naming off their favorites of whatever the topic happens to be. In the second show, their guest was Adam Baldwin, another Chuck alumnus (and also one of the stars of Monster Makers, a movie I wrote for the Hallmark Channel.)


Today We Learned
Associate Producer Tyson Saner grabbed the previous clip and this next clip, which comes from the Today We Learned podcast, featuring Razzle Dangerously (as heard in the Picking Favorites clip), and Dan Casey. This Nerdist show says that the hosts bring you “the latest and greatest and sometimes weirdest facts and trivia the world has to offer.” In this clip, from their Epi62, the hosts and their guest Jacob Soboroff talk about dumb laws in the United States.

Angry Old Man
We clipped The Angry Old Man podcast quite a while ago – Episode 53, I think – so it’s high time we hit him again. All I know about the ringmaster for this podcast is that he goes by the name Robert Q, and that he does all the voices on this thing. Tyson grabbed the cold opening from Angry Old Man Epi 90 so have a listen…
Grabbing Lunch
I was first introduced to Matt Knudsen, host of the Grabbing Lunch podcast, at the most recent LA Podcast Festival when Christine Blackburn (of the Story Worthy podcast) dragged him into the Podcast Lab and told me, “You have GOT to interview Matt!” I really enjoyed our chat and I love the premise for his podcast. Simple. Filling. Grab two people who listeners may or may not have heard of before, sit ‘em down to lunch and turn the mics on. This clip is from his Epi52 – at one episode a week, that’s his one year anniversary. And his guests were actress Helen Slater from things like Supergirl and City Slickers, and her husband Rob Watzke, a Hollywood editor and improviser.

Join us next time for Epi100, the last show of Season 1! Until next time, thanks for passing the Succotash!

– Marc Hershon
 

Monday, November 10, 2014

Succotash Epi98: Mixin' It Up with Matt Gourley

Oh, hey – it’s your old pal Marc Hershon. Unless this is your first time listening to Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast, in which case it’s your new pal Marc Hershon. Either way, this is Epi98. Just TWO episodes away from our Epi100 and the end of Succotash Season 1.


In regards to that, we’ve been tweeting requests for podcasters and listeners to call in "Happy Episode 100!" messages to the Succotash Hotline – (818) 921-7212 – and so far we’ve got nothing.

I was planning to do a big live episode for number 100 but with such an underwhelming response to the show’s Season 1 finale, I think we’re going to go back into Studio P with our engineer/producer Joe Paulino, announcer Bill Heywatt, booth announcer Kenny Durgis, and just do a slam-bang highly produced extravaganza. (Unlike this week’s episode, which was recorded in Studio F - my Fiat - while parked in my driveway in the middle of the night.)

Incidentally, this episode is NOT brought to you by SquareSpace, Nature Box, Cards Against Humanity, Dollar Shave Club or any other legitimate paying advertisers but we are sponsored by Henderson’s Pants and YOUR kind donations, merch purch, and/or clickthroughs on our Amazon.com banner at the top of our http://SuccotashShow.com homesite.

We’ve got a big old sweaty handful of clips from comedy podcasts around the interwebs, many of which were harvested by our Associate Producer Tyson Saner. Also on tap this episode is not one but TWO of our Burst O’ Durst segments with political and social comedian/commentator Will Durst, a fresh Henderson’s Pants commercial and the Tweetsack is back! (I pushed it off last episode because we were running so long but we’ll be mentioning a few notes we’ve gotten this time around as well as a bunch of kind folks who have been passing the Succotash via social media.)

What we also have in store for you in THIS very show, this Epi98, is an interview I recorded over Skype a few days ago with Matt Gourley, who many of you may know as ¼ of the Superego podcast. He also co-hosts the James Bonding podcast with Matt Myra. But his main reason for dropping by, virtually speaking, was to talk about his newest podcast AND the new network that it’s helping to launch.


Just this past week, the Wolf Pop podcast network started. It’s a spinoff of sorts from the Earwolf Network, home of many fine comedy podcasts such as Comedy Bang Bang, Affirmation Nation with Bob Ducca, Nerd Poker and many others. Wolf Pop is going to feature more shows with a pop culture bent, under the stewardship of the very funny Paul Scheer, whom you may know from the How Did This Get Made? podcast, his appearance on TV’s The League and many other endeavors.  Matt’s new show is called I Was There Too, and features Matt interviewing different guests each episode, guests who were connected to a famous scene or moment in a movie but just as a bit part player or an extra on the film.

For instance, his guest on the first show, which dropped this week, is Paul F. Tompkins, who was in There Will Be Blood and was in a scene with Daniel Day Lewis. We feature a clip from that premiere episode on this show, along with my chat with Matt. (I also review I Was There Too this week for This Week In Comedy Podcasts on Splitsider.com and for Huffington Post Comedy as well.)

Coming Soon: Season 2!

If you missed me talking about what Season Two of Succotash has in store, I’m going to be splitting the show into two different flavors which will both be available in the regular show feed. We will have clips-only episodes under the subtitle of Succotash Clips and then we’ll have interview shows subtitled Succotash Chats. And, occasionally, we might still mix those offerings for a serving of Succotash Clips n’ Chats.

No More 10 Most Active Shows In Stitcher's Top 100Comedy Podcast List?

It seems that Stitcher has been updating some hooha in the jezzleneck because of a defective framus and their numbers have been all kablooie since the middle of September. Now I was planning on maybe scapping this feature anyway after Epi100 so maybe we’ll just let it quietly crawl off and die in the bushes.

The Clips


Tomefoolery
Twice a month, comedian Cody Melcher invites a couple of funny friends on his Tomefoolery podcast to talk about a really, really weird book they've all just read. Comedianne Stephanie Hasz co-hosts this epi and guests include Chris Geiger, Mary Beth Smith and Claire Friedman from "The Nerdologues", a CHicago sketch group. The book for this episode is called A Christian Response to Dungeons and Dragons, written by Peter Leithart and George Grant in 1987. (Our Associate Producer Tyson mentioned that, “This is not something I knew existed and I'm almost sure that my Dad would have mentioned it as he came from a religious background  and is NOT a 'Satan Worshipper'.” This clip is of the folks re-enacting a famous "Chick Tract" called "Dark Dungeon" that is anti-Dungeons and Dragons. That "Chick Tract" has since been made into a film that was funded by Kickstarter. They want $5 bucks for the film online, which looks like it cost 5 bucks to make. Here's the trailer for it if you want to spend YOUR money on it…



Transformers 1986 
As if to test the modern axiom, “There’s a podcast for everything”, Podcast Squared’s Andrew Johnstone has unveiled the Transformers 1986 podcast. To bring his audio vision to life, he’s assembled a roundtable of podcasting podcasters — Jason “The Angry Ginger” (7 Days A Geek), Ben Tippett (Titanium Physicists), and Jim Chipley (Bizz and Chips), along with comedian Joe Starr. The first epsiode uses the nerd minds of the panel to deconstruct the first 20 minutes of this animated “classic” motion picture. So far there is only the first episode of Transformers 1986 so there’s plenty of time to jump aboard!


Pizza Beer Revolution
This is a segment-driven chatter show featuring Mike Pullano (host of the New York Rangers’ Blue Shirt Buds), Chris Ippolito (lead singer of Chapter Five) and ex-pro snowboarder Joe Maffei that appears on YouTube as a multi-screen videocast as well as an audio podcast. Their guest this segment – they frequently have interesting guests popping in – is Samantha Quintas of SModcast’s The Sam And Ming Show. And they’re talking – more or less on topic – about their favorite TV theme songs.


Hillbilly Nerd Talk
Hosted by Hank and Petra – no last names – who describe themselves as “educated hillbillies”, the Hillbilly Nerd Talk podcast hails from “deep in the hollows of rural Appalachia”. This is an amazing find from Tyson and features a charming married couple who chew the fat on a variety of subjects. This sample features them tossing around a list of the perils of Facebook from Men’s Health magazine.

Done and done. That’s Epi98 in a podshell. It’s not too late to record a special message for the Succotash Episode 100 – you can do it by calling into the Succotash Hotline at (818) 921-7212 or by sending us an MP3 or WAV file to marc@SuccotashShow.com. We continue to appreciate getting your reviews and rating on iTunes, your Thumbs Up on Stitcher, and your donations by clicking the Donate button at http://SuccotashShow.com.

Until next time, thanks for passing the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon
 

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Succotash Epi97: Podfestin' with Friends #1

At long last, here is Epi97 of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. I put this installment together while on vacation in Hawaii — not the first time we've come to you from Paradise — but, just as usual these days, I did my recording from Studio F (in this case, a rented Fiat 500C), so the sound quality of my wraparound portions will sound remarkably the same as always.

Went a little bit different with the show this time out. This episode we’ve got not just some comedy podcast clips for you but also a few of the interviews that I did recently at the 3rd Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival (which was about a month ago now…)

Among the many folks I got a chance to talk to while I was in the SquareSpace Podcast Lab and whose interviews I share this episode include…

Janet Varney from the JV Club podcast. Yes, I FINALLY got my old friend Janet to sit down and chat for a bit. I’ve known her since before she got out of college, when she and her fellow sketch performers (Cole Stratton, David Owen, and Gabriel Diani) were in a group called Totally False People and used to open for my improv group The Riffingtons in the San Francisco Bay Area. Needless to say, she and her compatriots have FAR outstripped my show business career on many fronts and I love it. She’s great and her podcast The JV Club is going great guns.

Christine Blackburn from the Story Worthy podcast. Christine’s always fun to talk to, plus she kept finding new people for me to interview while I was at the podcast festival, which was great – I made some new podcaster friends and found out about some great show I’d never heard of before which we’ll be featuring on future episodes of Succotash. We also talked about working together to try and get Story Worthy on the boards, live, somewhere in the Bay Area soon.

Matt Weinhold, co-host of the Monster Party podcast. Always great hanging out with Matt whenever I’m in LA and I was especially happy to have been asked to jump into the Monster Party with him and the guys. Before that happened, though, he dropped by the podfest after work so we chatted it up, then we wandered around poking our heads into the shows going on, then we gorged ourselves on late night eats at Jerry's Deli in the Valley.

In addition to the interviews, we play clips from all three of their shows, not to mention a trio of other podcasts, which were harvested by our ace Associate Producer Tyson Saner.

NO TWEETSACK OR 10 MOST ACTIVE SEGMENTS THIS WEEK

Because I knew this was going to be a long show, there's no Tweetsack segment this week. And the Top 10 Most Active Shows in Stitcher's Top 100 Comedy Podcasts List is on hold because Stitcher apparently hasn't updated their stats on that list in the past month. Who do they think they are? Succotash? Of all the nerve.

Nonetheless, we do have our Burst O' Durst at the end of the show, featuring political comedian and cultural commentator Will Durst, this time talking about the spooky upcoming midterm elections.

CLIPS

Chillpak Hollywood Hour
A way longer-than-usual visit with Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness, plucked from their somewaht recent "partycast" in Los Angeles, where they took time out to interview…me.


The New Hollywood
Tyson sent along a clip from a podcast I hadn’t heard before this show: The New Hollywood. I’m not sure this qualifies as a comedy podcast – the show’s homesite describes the show as “a podcast interview show about the greatest films from the 70's – by the people who made them.” - but there are sure some great funny stories in some of the episodes. This clip is from a few weeks ago when actor Stacy Keach and host Brian Flaherty discussed Keach’s career, and when he and a partner wrote what could have been a war epic for producer Roger Corman.

The JV Club
Host Janet Varney kicked this podcast off over 130 episodes ago, mostly talking talking one-on-one with female guest from the arts (although her "Boys of Summer" shows allow her to stretch the format a bit.) This clip features her guest, actress Noureen DeWolfe, whom she appeared with in the popular web/TV series reality show spoof Burning Love.


Bad Reception
We have a clip from a podcast that’s just getting started, called Bad Reception, with host Jordan Scherer. It’s only a few episodes in, and the show’s homesite says that Jordan talks to himself and guests about life, pop culture, and comedy. In the clip Tyson pulled, the host is talking his listeners about why they should give podcasting a try themselves.

Story Worthy
Featuring hosts Christine Blackburn and Hannes Phinney. In this clip from the recent "Trouble In My Pants" episode of Story Worthy, we share part of a story that starts out favorably but seems to very quickly head south in a story related by storytelling guest Iris Bahr.


Happy Sad Confused 
Our associate producer Tyson tossed us an episode from Happy Sad Confused with host Josh Horowitz. He talks to celebrities about "everything and anything", according to the show's homesite. I don’t know about that but he recently chatted up Justin Long about working with Kevin Smith, who directed him in the oddball film Tusk.

Monster Party
We've featured clips from Monster Party before, with co-hosts James Gonis, Shawn Sheridan, Larry Strothe, Matt Weinhold, and a different guest each episode. This particular episode, MAd Doctors, which dropped this week, features ME! It's funny in spite of that fact…

Just a closing note to let you know that I appreciate all of you who have been mentioning the show on Twitter and Facebook and especially everyone who has taken the time to rate and review us on iTunes and "Thumbs Upping" us on Stitcher Smart Radio.

And a reminder that, if you’re shopping on Amazon.com, visit us first at http://SuccotashShow.com and click on the Amazon banner at the top of the page. That will take you to the Amazon site and anything that you buy, they’ll send us a tiny cut of it.

If you want to help us offset the costs of production, you can also click on our Donate button at the Succotash site or you can even buy some merch in our Succotashery. So many ways to help pass the Succotash and so little time, really.

Thanks once again to Tyson Saner, our associate producer, Joe Paulino, our engineer/producer, an Bill Heywatt, our booth announcer.

Thanks for passing the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon
 

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Succotash Epi96: Documentin' with Robert Campos & Donna LoCicero

I'm your host Marc Hershon and this IS Epi 96 of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. (If you missed it, there WAS an Epi 95.5 which I did from the road when I headed down to the 3rd Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival - check out the blog entry just beneath this one!)

I was hoping to record this episode as I was sitting in the Squarespace Podcast Lab, surrounded by podcasters interviewing other podcasters. But the time got away from me – it seems there was always someone else to interview or to be interviewed by for THEIR show. I will be featuring my own interviews with other podcasters over the next bunch of shows but not on THIS episode.

This episode features my interview with Robert Campos and Donna LoCIcero, the movie makers behind 3 Still Standing, a documentary that looks at the San Francisco comedy scene back to the 1980s through the lives and careers of a trio of local comedians: Will Durst, Johnny Steele, and Larry “Bubbles” Brown.

I found one of the interesting things about Robert and Donna is that they’re not from a comedy background but are real, bona fide documentarians who have done hours of material for television. You'll hear about their fascinating background and how they cooked up the idea for the project. This is their first feature-length film and they’re coming at it as fans of comedy. I think you’ll enjoy our chat…

…Not to mention catching a sneak peak of the film itself! Here's the trailer…

3 Still Standing from beanfieldproductions on Vimeo.

 Chillpak "Partycast"

I made the drive to Los Angeles from San Francisco in time to catch the Chillpak Hollywood Hour live "partycast" from the Bottle Rock bar in downtown LA. I was a lively time but I haven't had a chance to snip a bit of that show for you yet. But thanks to hosts Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness for putting on the dog.

The 10 Most Active Shows On Sticher's Top 100 Comedy Podcast List

As mentioned before, this feature may be cut in the near future in order to save us time on the podcast UNLESS there are some vocal or social advocates who want to stand up for it. Where else can you get a run down of the ten shows that have moved up or down the list in the past week? Call the Succotash Hotline at (818) 921-7212 or email me at marc@SuccotashShow.com if you'd like to show your support for this segment.

AT                                                                                MOVED
9 The Duncan Trussell Family Hour                                  +  7
24 What Say You?                                                            + 10
35 SModcast >> Jay & Silent Bob Get Old                         + 10
36 Off The Air – Chick McGee                                          + 11
55 Christopher Titus Podcast                                          -   9
70 Cashing In with TJ Miller                                            +  9
78 The Dana Gould Hour                                                 + 29
85 The Mick Betancourt Show                                         +  9
94 Fernando & Greg’s Daily Podcast                                + 56
95 U Talkin’ U2 To Me?                                                   - 14

Clips

Mike And Tom Eat Snacks
It’s been about a year but, at long last, Mike And Tom Eat Snacks, aka MATES, is back! Everyone, including themselves, thought that hosts Michael Ian Black and Tom Cavanaugh, were dead. But they’re not. They’re alive and snacking. And they celebrated their returns with a snack as old as snacks themselves…the humble hard boiled egg.

We Have Concerns
I dropped a mention of the podcast We Have Concerns a couple of months ago in the This Week In Comedy Podcasts column on Splitsider.com. But we hadn’t yet played a clip. Jeff Cannata and Anthony Carboni have a lot of fun delving in the wonder and dread hidden inside seemingly innocuous things. F’rinstance, this clip is from their recent episode Algorithm is a Dancer.

Dom Irrera LIVE from the Laugh Factory
I can’t believe that comedian Dom Irrera is almost 100 epis into his podcast, Dom Irrera LIVE from the Laugh Factory, and we’ve never featured a clip from his show before. Thanks to Tyson Saner, our Associate Producer, we are now. He does his show, interviewing comedians and talking about Hollywood, right from Hollywood’s Laugh Factory comedy store. Our clip is from a recent episode where Dom is talking to comedian John Heffron.

Stick a fork in Epi96 because it’s done! We had clips. We had chat. We had pants.

Coming up next episode will be more clips and one or two of the miniviews I had with some of the podcasters at the 3rd Annual LA Podfest.

If you’d like to get in touch with me, shoot me an email at maarc@SuccotashShow.com. Or listen for the number for the Succotash Hotline when our friendly booth announcer Bill Heywatt says goodbye in a moment.

You can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, CWERadio.com – that’s Clutch And Wiggle Entertainment Radio, where we replay all the time – and sometimes SoundCloud – been having some upload woes there – and please Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter and, as always, thanks for passing the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon

Friday, September 26, 2014

Succotash Epi95.5: Travelin' to the 3rd LA Podfest

Time for another Succotash "halfisode", one of those short, off-the-cuff, podcast installments that I spew into my digital recorder while plying the "Kessel Run". (That's my nickname for the 5+ hour jaunt on Interstate 5 between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The occasion is the 3rd Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival, taking place this Friday through Sunday, Sept. 26-28. Haven't missed one yet. I'm writing this accompanying blog on Friday morning, after successfully navigating my way to Big Smoggy.


This kept me going on the six hour drive yesterday…
I took a half-day off of work so that I could make the drive in plenty of time to not only make the Podfest but also to drop in on the Chillpak Hollywood Hour "partycast" that was going on at the Bottle Rock in downtown LA last night. Which I did, as evidenced by my photo of hosts Phil Leirness and Dean Hagland that appears below.

During this particular halfisode, I finally give out with some details on the upcoming format changes in store for future episodes of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. My idea - in an attempt to move to a more easily consumable format - is to split the show up a bit. By that, I mean that each episode will be either primarily comedy podcast clips or an interview. And you'll be able to tell which is which by the title, because the former will be under the banner of Succotash Clips, while the latter will be called Succotash Chats.

Make sense?

The reasons for making this move in "Season 2" of the show - these changes will transpire beginning with Epi101 - are several. One is that episodes are getting very long. Lately our shows have been coming in at between 90 and 120 minutes. So they're getting increasingly more difficult to produce and taking more and more time. Another reason is that I's like to make a bit more of a consistent product, by aiming for 30 minute shows for the Clips editions, and no more than an hour for the Chats versions.


Phil & Dean of the Chillpak Hollywood Hour
As I mention in this epi, no one ever says much about the show's format as it is but, if you either support or object to the planned changes, feel free to reach out and let me know. You can call the Succotash Hotline, at (818) 921-7212. Or email me at marc@SuccotashShow.com. Or just tweet your comments to @SuccotashShow.

Also during this episode, we had a surprise guest drop in via cell phone! Out of the blue, friend of the show Rick Overton, brilliant comedian and the host of podcasting's Overview, happened to call while I was recording. So I just left the call in.

BTW, the quality of the show is a bit sketchy. Recording in Studio F while it's moving is always a little difficult. I filtered a lot of the road noise out but it's still a less-than-optimum production. Still, it's only about 20 minutes long, so you can certainly muddle through that much. I did.

If you're going to be the LA Podfest this weekend, you can track me down in the Podcast Lab or you can also message or call me through the Succotash Hotline number (see above) - I'll have it on live this weekend rather than voicemail.

Thanks for passing the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon
 

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Succotash Epi95: Interfacin' with The Amazing Johnathan

Just four more shows after this one and we hit Epi100, the last show of the first season of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast.

Seasons in podcasting seem a little silly to me, so I figured after almost 3 years and 100 ‘sodes, we’ll make THAT the end of season one.  (I’m still trying to figure out if I have it together enough to do a live show somewhere for the 100th episode. Don’t know. We’ll see…

I’ve also been talking with our Associate Producer Tyson Saner– or messaging him, more precisely, about a couple of format changes that Succotash is in for in the second season of the show. I’ll tell you more about that soon. Nothing major in terms of what you hear, just going to tighten up the struts on this rust heap a little bit and see if we can’t keep it flying a little longer.


We only have a few comedy podcast clips to share with you this episode because the main attraction is my interview with comic–magician The Amazing Johnathan. He recently announced his retirement from performing live on stage and we find out during the interview.

I had heard Johnathan on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast – a great interview, by the way. If you didn’t hear it, think about tracking it down over at WTFpod.com. But because I’ve known Johnathan for years, I figured it might be neat to get him on here to chat and we’d no doubt find some other things to talk about. Which we did…

He's had an interesting career, starting out trying to do stage magic in Michigan, then street magic in San Francisco, before finding his unique "punk magician" spin on an act that has always been more about the laughs than the magic. Johnathan talks about those early days on the street - competing for sidewalk space with the likes of Harry Anderson and A. Whitney Brown. We also find out how a bet he made with a friend ended up keeping off Late Night with David Letterman for years after he made his debut.

And once upon a time I was the head writer on a short-lived game show called Ruckus for Merv Griffin. Johnathan was the host and we talk about some of that craziness, too.

We talk at length about Ruckus, actually and one of the things we bring up - in fact, something I did in this particular segment Johnathan uses to kick off and close our chat - was a gag called The Ultimate Blindfold. I came on stage as a"stooge", pretending to be a member of the theater audience, which was where we pulled our contestants from for each episode. That bit lives in perpetuity on YouTube, so I figured I'd slug it in the blog here…


The 10 Most Active Shows on Stitcher's Top 100 Comedy Podcast List

Nowhere else in Podcastland are you likely to hear a list featuring the 10 most active shows on any list. But we have it for you here! These are the shows that moved up OR down the most in the past week on Stitcher’s Top 100 Comedy Podcast List. (Some weeks we get big, massive swings in the numbers. Some weeks, not so much. Mostly single digit moves this week with a couple of exceptions.)

AT                                                                                MOVED
8   SModcast >> Tell ‘Em, Steve-Dave!                               + 6
22 The Bugle                                                                    + 8
26 Judge John Hodgman                                                   - 10
32 Bertcast’s Podcast                                                       +10
46 The Christopher Titus Podcast                                      + 6
47 Off The Air – Chick McGee                                            - 7
68 Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine           - 7
81 U Talkin’ U2 To Me?                                                     +30
90 DVDASA with David Choe and Asa Akira                         -12
95 By The Way: In Conversation with Jeff Garland              - 7

As much as I kind of get a kick out of this feature, we may need to trim some fat if we move to a shorter show in a few episodes so this could be on the chopping block. Do YOU like the 10 Most Active? Enough to keep it in the show? Call into the Succotash Hotline – (818) 921-7212 – and let me know.

Other Stuff In This Episode

We have a fresh Burst O' Durst with our resident crankpot, comedian and social commentator Will Durst, who's talking about the new iPhone 6. This episode is sponsored by Henderson's Peer Sucker Pants. And we've got a few things to talk about in the Tweetsack.

Clips

Greg Proops’ Film Club
This past week I reviewed Greg Proops’ OTHER podcast for the This Week In Comedy Podcasts column on Splitsider.com, then I shaved it off and put it up on Huffington Post, just for good measure. So I’m not talking about his The Smartest Man In The World podcast. This is his Greg Proops Film Club. It’s a once-a-month movie screening of something that Greg likes – and the most recent one film was The Man Who Would Be King, starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine at their most dashing but, in the segment we’re about to listen to, Proops goes off on a tangent about spending teenage nights at the local drive-in movie theater.

P.F.’s Tape Recorder
We recently got hit up to revisit the P.F.’s Tape Recorder podcast, hosted by P.F. Wilson and to check out a recent episode featuring the Sklar Brothers – very funny comedians and hosts of the Sklarboro Country and Sklarboro County podcasts. P.F. wanted us to pay particularly close attention to his It’s Facebook NOT Factbook part of that epi, so that's what we do.

The Geek Generation
I saw on the Independent Podcaster Association page on Facebook that The Geek Generation podcast hit its 200th episode. Congrats to host Rob Logan and his co-host Mike Volpe. These guys love talking about movies, TV shows, video games…pretty much anything their audience enjoys geeking out over. Our snippet is from their big Epi 200 where they get into…Oreos.

Hitting The Road

I'll be on the road later this week, heading to Los Angeles and the 3rd Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival. (This year, BTW, for the first time they're offering a "virtual ticket" to the PodFest - for $25, you get to watch their "livestream" of the entire event online.)

I'll kick off my Southland visit by dropping into the big "partycast" being thrown by Chillpak Hollywood Hour hosts Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness Thursday night. So I may toss a Succotash "halfisode" up online between now and Epi96.

Thanks for passing the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon