Succotash Clips Epi138: Cruisin' Thru The Clippage

That’s right, it’s me, Marc Hershon. Your host and all-electric vehicle for Epi138 of Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast.

NOTE: If you haven’t been here the past couple of episodes, we’ve started a campaign to change the generic use of the word “podcast” to “soundcast”. (I realize that this gets a little sticky for those shows that pretty much officially have “podcast” in the name. The word is part of our logo design here on Succotash and for the past 5+ years, we’ve been THE Comedy Podcast Podcast.

But the name is anchoring the medium to a single device – the iPod from Apple – so I want to throw it back wide open with the new designation soundcast.  Our announcer Bill Heywatt is supposed to be cutting new intros and outros for the show to reflect the name change, but our engineer/producer Joe Paulino has had a computer meltdown at Studio P. So until he gets things back up and rolling we’re stuck with the old P-word in the open and close to the show.

And  also have to get around to changing the logo, as seen here. No one said this soundcast biz was going to be easy. Or did they? I can’t remember…

First of all BIG news! BIG BIG News, in a way – it really isn’t going to change anything as far as I know, but Succotash is now available for your listening pleasure through the I Heart Radio chain, network, thing. It hasn’t required us to do much, as far as I can tell but we are on there! Potentially MILLIONS of new listeners can now avoid us. Just go to IHeartRadio.com and search for Succotash OR click this link!

LIVE APPEARANCES!

I’ve got a couple of live appearances coming up. If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, I’m going to be part of the 40th year reunion show of Spaghetti Jam, which was a really popular improvisational comedy show in San Francisco starting back in the 1970s. We’re gettign as many of the people that we can find that can still move most of their limbs to show up for this. It’s on Sunday, September 11th – that’s right, 9-11, best date for a comedy show ever, at the Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley. You can go to http://142ThrockmortonTheatre.org for tickets and information.

And then later in the month – September 23-25 – I’ll be at the 5th Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival. I’m hosting the Journalism and Podcasting panel on Sunday afternoon at 2 PM, but the rest of the time, I’ll be set up in the Podcast Lab with my equipment doing interviews so stop on by and let’s chat!

Back to business. This is another installment of Succotash Clips, and it’s chock full of tasty snippets of soundcasts and podcasts from all over the web. I clipped a couple, our associate producer Tyson Saner grabbed a few, and we also have some uploaded directly to us using our upload link: http://hightail.com/u/Succotash.

In alphabetical order, we’ll be hearing from Dark Journey, Dazed & Convicted, Dino & Andy’s Skull Juice, Drinking In The Park,Lesser Known Somebodies, Proudly Resents, Spirits, Tao Of Comedy, and  The 85th South Show. We also have a visit to the Podcast Graveyard to hold a clip seance with a soundcast from the great beyond.

Plus a Burst O’ Durst from our friend, political comedian, and social commentator Will Durst. We also have a little ditty for our pal Abner Serd. Not to mention a Scrooge McDuck–style dip into the Tweetsack.

This episode of Succotash Clips is brought to you by Henderson’s Pants. If you’re in the market for fictional pants that fit like a dream and don’t really exist, you should get yourself a pair of Henderson’s Pants.

THE CLIPS!

Dino And Andy’s Skull Juice
Let’s start out with a clip from a brand new soundcast, one that reviewed last week for Splitsider.com. It’s got the great title of Dino And Andy’s Skull Juice, and features Dino Stamatopolous, a guy who’s written on SNL, created Adult Swim’s Moral Orel, wrote and appeared on Community, and has written a whole bunch of funny stuff besides. Andy Dick is, well, Andy Dick. He’s been a standup comedian, sketch and improv player, as well as having appeared in films and television. These guys were pals for 25 years, although, as Dino points out in episode #1, he didn’t talk to Andy for 10 years. (Our esteemed Associate Producer Tyson Saner snagged this clip from their kickoff episode, which picks up right from their opening theme song.)

Lesser Known Somebodies
FrIend-of-the-Succotash Abner Serd sent along a link to a comedy podcast he found out of South Africa. It’s called Lesser Known Somebodies, hosted by Johannesberg-based comedian Simmi Areff, and the latest installment features fellow local comic Alfred Adriaan. Took me a few minutes to get into the rhythm of the accent but then these guys unspool a kind of fascinating glimpse inside the current comedy scene in and around Johannesberg. (I got such a kick out of listening to Lesser Known Somebodies that I reviewed it in last week’s Huffington Post.)


Proudly Resents 

We got a clip sent over by Adam Spiegelman, he of the Proudly Resents podcast. (He was complaining that there was no upload button on our Succotash homesite, which is true. I am working to remedy that. But you can always just got to http://hightail.com/u/Succotash and then upload a 3-5 minute MP3 clip.) He recently had Conan writer Todd Levin on to help him dismantle Ninja 3: The Domination. At one point Todd talks about the only time Conan O’Brien ever got sued. As Adam tells it, “It involves a one-hit wonder, an 80’s film, and Tim Tebo.”

Dazed & Convicted: Craigslost
We got a clip uploaded to us from the delightful Monica Hamburg, host of the Dazed & Convicted soundcast. Lately, it’s been subtitled as Dazed & Convicted: Craigslost. And why, you might ask? Monica likes combing the seedier side of Craigslist and presents, literally, the pick of the litter. Litter being the operative word…

The 85 South Show
Tyson clipped us a taste of The 85 South Show, which is billed as “a podcast for people who don’t know what a podcast is." It’s hosted by DC Young Fly and Karlous Miller. This clip we have is from an episode done in the wake of police-involved shootings, the killing of Alton Sterling and Philando Castille, with the hosts and their guest, Last Comic Standing champ Clayton English, discussing solutions to stop the violence, and the role that comedy plays in the social dialog. #blacklivesmatter

Spirits

Okay, I don’t know how many times I have said on this show that we prefer to play clips rather than promos. Clips make for better, real-er sample of the show. And I can talk about ‘em. When we had Hal Lublin and Mark Gagliardi on earlier this year, they even made a definitive We Got This ruling that clips are better than promos. But some people don’t get it, and that’s fine. We support all soundcasts and so it is that spirit that I present this 30-second promo of Spirits without additional commentary…

Drinking In The Park
Just the opposite of the challenge of Spirits is what I’ve got going on with a show called Drinking In The Park. The hosts are Neil and Johnny, per their direct upload to Succotash, with no last names. But they sent me the whole episode Issue 10, Live At Toronto Comicon. Not a clip, but almost 10 minutes of chat and music stuff. Still better than a promo! I sliced out a few minutes of them talking to some joker who calls himself That Joker Guy.

Doctor Who: Dark Journey

This is a clip from a show called Doctor Who: Dark Journey. I don’t think it’s officially affiliated with the British TV series Dr. Who at all. In fact, I know it isn’t, because here’s the note that came with clip: “The attached file is a clip from AM Audio Media's main audio drama Doctor Who: Dark Journey. Dark Journey is an unofficial fan made audio drama featuring professional actors, writers, sound designers and composers. Our theme tune is by the UK prog rock group 'Traffic Experiment'. Dark Odyssey is a bit of a wink and nod self parody of it and all things fan made.”

The Tao of Comedy
This podcast has a pretty grim origin story. The host, Kelly Maclean, had been at last year’s Just For Laughs festival in Canada, where she interviewed a number of comedians. Four months later, her brother Andrew was killed in a car accident. The conversations she had in Montreal were the things that brought her back from crushing depression and so she’s launched the podcast in order to continue that kind of deep interchange with funny people. In this clip from Epi10, she’s talking to Brad Williams, standup and co-host of the About Last Night soundcast.

Podcast Graveyard
In the 5 years that I’ve been running Succotash, comedy writer Caleb Bacon has had two very listenable soundcasts. The first was called The Gentleman’s Club which took a podcast dirtnap at the end of 2012. A few months later, Caleb was back with more of an instructional soundcast called Man School, in which he talked to guys from various walks off life, although most were somehow connected to show business, and he’d get their story about some deep subject matter. A little over a year ago, in June of 2015, the last known class of Man School was in session. The clip we're featuring is from a few epis before that one, #83, with Caleb and his guest comic, writer and fellow podcaster Mick Betancourt (The Mick Betancourt Show), talking about life as a sober alcoholic.

Country Fair Song
The latest ditty from our friend Abner Serd celebrates the "season" of county fairs. Special thanks to Abner for joining our "Soundcast Movement"!

SUCCOTASH CAN USE YOUR HELP!

There are a number of things you could do that would help us out in making sure that Succotash continues. First and foremost would be your kind indulgence to head over to iTunes to both rate and review us favorably (AKA 5 stars, please!) Our Donate button is clickable 24/7 at http://SuccotashShow.com, and we have now taken the limits off of how much you can give. That’s right! The sky’s the limit for you listeners who have been holding back because you were afraid you couldn’t give enough. While visiting our homesite, feel free to also click the Amazon banner at the top of the page (although I just learned recently that it may not be working properly if you browse with Google Chrome.) And for those of you who enjoy wearing t-shirts and sweatshirts, or dig drinking your hot beverages from a porcelain mug, we also have merch at the Succotashery, accessible on that very same homesite.

Thanks for passing the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon 

 

Succotash Chats Epi137: Grabbin' Dinner with Matt Knudsen

Yes, it’s me. Marc Hershon. Your host and fully articulated artificial resuscitation dummy for Epi137 of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. Or The Comedy Soundcast Soundcast, as the case may be.

This time around we bring you an edition of Succotash Chats, featuring my interview with Matt Knudsen — comedian, actor, bon vivant, and host of the Grabbing Lunch podcast.  Matt was kind enough to have me and Cole Stratton, co-host of the Pop My Culture podcast, as guests on his show when I was in LA last year. As he was recently playing a Tuesday night here in Northern California, I thought I’d return the favor. A few weeks ago, we grabbed dinner and a chat at the Piazza D’Angelo in Mill Valley before his show.

We talk about his early days as a merchant marine before he caught the comedy bug, and some of the acting and other stuff he's been up to since. (We don't talk specifically about any of these, but Matt's appeared recent in such TV shows as The Mindy Project, Rosewood, The League, and Why? With Hannibal Buress.)

ALSO THIS EPISODE

We’ve got a Burst O’ Durst segment in this episode. I always appreciate political comedian and social commentator Will Durst's segments on the show but especially with this year’s Presidential race being so wonky — and publicly embarrassing for Americans with what we’ve got running on both tickets.

We also have a call via the SpareMin app with Reverend John Price, a faithful listener who is on the verge of dropping his own soundcast soon.

And this whole mess is brought to you by Henderson's Back To S'cool Pants. Where would this show be without Henderson's Pants? Well, the same place we are, actually, which means we still can use you vigorous use of our Donate button up at our homesite, http://SuccotashShow.com. While you're there, don't be afraid to use the Amazon banner at the top of the page to do you shopping at the world's largest everything store — because we get a little taste of whatever you spend there. And we've got a link on our site to our Succotashery, whould you want to grab a t-shirt, mug or other piece of merch festooned with the Succotash logo!

PODCAST VS SOUNDCAST

I mentioned last episode, Succotash Clips Epi136, that I’m going to start a movement to replace the name “podcast” with “soundcast”, because why should Apple retain hold of the medium in the name with the vestige of a technology they've basically discontinued?)

So I’ve contacted our musical director, Scott Carvey, and asked if he’d be able to retool his portion of our theme song to say “soundcast” instead of “podcast”. And our booth announcer, Bill Heywatt, is getting ready to record new intros and outros for the show that reflect that change as well.

It’s likely going to take some time to make the switchover and then will come the long, hard road to getting an entire world to change how they think and talk about the medium but what the heck? I’ve got nothing better to do with my time. And, in fact, our friend Dave-In-The-Cave, former co-host of former podcast Taco Tuesday, is about to start his new show, the Thunder Taco Soundcast.

More on the soundcast situation as it unfolds.

Until next time, thanks for passing the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon