Can you feel it, listener? I can. I can feel it. The warm, sultry breeze of our impending Succotash hiatus is gently wafting around the next bend in our feed. I’m your every-other-weekly-host Marc Hershon and welcome to Episode 352, which I’m calling “Last Clips Before Hiatus” because, well, it’s our second-to-last episode before we take a break BUT the last one in which we’ll be featuring clips. I’ll tell you more about what our LAST show before jump the tracks is going to be like toward this end of this blog entry but, for now, let’s share this time together as just another in the long lines of Succotash episodes where we feature clips from other comedy soundcasts across the internet.
Before I get to what I have in store for you, let’s recall what Epi351, Tyson Saner’s final solo hosting episode before the break, was like last week. His was the first episode to officially enter our 12th year of soundcasting. We started in April of 2011 so Tyson got the glory and the honor of being the first of us to break the tape on year 12 with “The Penultimate Pre-Hiatus Show”, which featured clips from comedy soundcasts Holidays After Dark, What Went Wrong, and Bit Weird But Fair Enough (I Guess). Tyson wrapped up that episode with a very sincere thanks and farewell for now and I think you’ll get a great deal out of listening to that installment of the show.
As for me, I’m intending to go out with this show as it was originally conceived: By featuring a collection of clips from soundcasts that we’ve not featured before. Sure, we've occasionally dipped back into the same pool now and again to feature some faves – but our overall design and intent has been to bring you what’s fresh and new, at least our ears and quite possibly yours. Bearing that in mind, I have clips from Literally with Rob Lowe, a new sitcom soundcast called Popcorn For Dinner, and a show from across the Pond in England – a well-regarded standby there called Always Be Comedy. Since this will be our last opportunity to do so for awhile, I’m going to feature an audio essay from comedian and friend of the show Dan St. Paul, from his Slices blog, entitled “Slave to the Machines”. This lovely cavalcade of clippage is brought to you, as always, by Henderson’s Pants and their new Bottoms Up Cargo Pants, a recent introduction designed by our own announcer, Bill Heywatt, for that discriminating boozehound on the go.
As I said, toward the end of this episode I let you know what’s in store for the final-final episode next week, as well as a few wrap-up thoughts from my brain and my heart as we hit our 12th year anniversary.
CLIPS
Is there more of a consummate celebrity in the entertainment world today than Rob Lowe? He’s an actor who has created an indelible brand for and of himself, he’s never really had any controversy around him, and he’s basically a Hollywood homegrown talent who’s been around since he was a kid. A few yeas ago he started popping up as a guest on a number of soundcasts and it wasn’t long until he pulled the cloak off of Literally, the show he hosts every week, mostly talking to friends that he pulls right out of his own cell phone. He recently talk with Levar Burton, famous for playing Geordi LaForge on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Before that, he broke through as Kunta Kinte, a young slave on the Roots miniseries. And he talks a bit about both those experiences in this clip.
This next entry is brand new. It’s only been out for about 8 or 9 weeks at this point, which means its first season is coming to a close and you can binge it. Because it’s one of the first full-on soundcast situation comedies that I’ve heard. Popcorn for Dinner is, first of all, produced by one of my favorite production outfits on the planet, which is Kelly&Kelly out of Vancouver, Canada. We’ve featured other shows from them before, including This Sounds Serious and Dexter Guff is Smarter Than You. This new offering is largely written and created by comedian Maddy Kelly – no relation to Pat Kelly or Chris Kelly, who ARE related, but maybe it helps to have them set a show up if your last name IS Kelly. It features former Nickelodean star Ciara Bravo as the narrator, and stars Maddy Kelly, Charlie Foster, Jillian Ebanks and Ben Fawcett as four friends in their early 20s as they try to make it on their own, despite the fact that none of them know what that looks like...at all. It’s got all the tropes that make classic sitcoms identifiable including a laugh track. It’s meta, it’s corny, it’s funny and – after I listened to the first three episodes, I was pretty much hooked. The clip I have for you is from Episode 6 and I picked the very opening of the show so you can easily pick up on the vibe – they have the opening teaser scene, the set-up for the episode and your get to hear what the main characters each sound like.
I’m not sure how long Always Be Comedy has been cranking out episode in Britain but, given their list of guests, it’s been going awhile. Hosted by comics James Gill and Tim Lewis, they invite other comedians in to chat and to curate their dream gig – o talk about all the elements that they would bring together to make a dynamite boffo show. This clip doesn’t quite get to that part of the hosts’ chat with guest, England comedy legend Stewart Lee, which is well worth strapping in for given his experience. Instead, Stewart waxes on a bit about some of his contemporary veteran comedians.
Which brings us to the end of our featured clips this week and right up to the doorstep of comedian and friend of the show Dan St. Paul. He’s been writing these humorous essays for his “Slices” blog on Substack for a while now, and I had him record a few and then added some music and effects to them. That was impetus enough for Dan to turn to his pal Jimmy Goings and really get into producing them. Here’s his latest, entitled “Slave to the Machines”.
That is going to do it for this final solo episode before our Succotash hiatus begins. As I teased at the top of the show, I can let you know that next week, for our 12th Anniversary Show, Tyson Saner and I will be joining forces to celebrate the blessed event. Joining us will be longtime friend of the show who we first met in Episode 36 back in the Fall of 2012, Travis Clark. We’ll look back and reminisce not just about Succotash but also about soundcasting and how far it come since we first fired up the mics in 2011. That’s next week, in this very same feed, so don’t miss it!
As for me, I am sometime startled to wake up and discover this Succotash thing has been going as long as it has. I’ve made a lot of friends, literally around the globe, through the network of soundcasters out there. I think one of the things that we’ll do as we sail into our 12th year is that I may just have to stop beating the drum to call these things soundcasts instead of podcasts. We gave it a valiant effort. I don’t think anyone would deny us that. We’ll see.
I have to thank Joe Paulino, first and foremost, which helped me breathe life into this concept through the auspices of Studio P, his “home of the hit” in Sausalito, California. And for introducing us to Bill Heywatt, our erstwhile and often tanked booth announcer. Scott Carvey, one of Dana Carvey’s brothers, created our theme music from me sending him a jazz tune I liked and doing his own interpretation of the concept so we could have some music free and clear. Kenny Durgis is our booth assistant who, frankly doesn’t do much more than complain but we gotta acknowledge the little guy.
More than anyone connected to the show, my heartfelt and deep gratitude goes to Tyson Saner, who went from contributing a few odd clips now and again to becoming the show’s Associate Producer to full-blown host, slipping into the Big Chair for several years while it stepped into the background as Executive Producer and got to take a big breather.
I would be remiss if I didn’t thank my wife, the lovely and talented Debra Hershon. While she’s never spent a moment hanging around this show, if not for her support and giving me the space to create and shave time off of our personal time – sometimes on while on vacation and sometimes even urging me to head to LA or shows in San Francisco so I could get interviews and such, this show certainly wouldn’t have happened.
Finally, of course, there’s you. Our listener. Whether this is the very first time you’ve filled your ears with Succotash or if you’ve been with us for every one of the 352 episodes we’ve dropped, this has always been intended for you. As a wayfinding tool to help you hack through the soundcast wilderness to find fun, new shows to listen to. And whether it was from those heady early days when we actually would show up on the front page of Apple’s downloads or, more often bouncing along with just blips on the download radar, we know that you’ve been out there putting up with our audio shenanigans. So thank you, thank you, thank you.
We’ll be here next year with that 12th anniversary show. And then Tyson, Bill, Joe, and I are going to take a little break. Catch our breaths and figure out how and when we’ll return. This show maybe exactly like you hear it today. Or we may change up the format and try some different things. Hang in there and we’ll let you know what’s what.
And in the meantime, if in the next week or so you have someone tap you on the shoulder while you’re working out in the gym and they ask what you’re listening to on your earbuds, won’t you please pass the Succotash?
— Marc Hershon
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