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
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
