Marc Hershon here, back from last weekend’s rousing 2nd Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival! And what a festival it was. Held once again at the Delfina Hotel in Santa Monica. There were tons of live podcasts going off during the three days – or, really, two and a half days – of the festival.
Looking back on the schedule for the PodFest, I count 40 shows and that’s not counting the folks like us that were recording our own shows and interviews in the Podcast Lab.
Speaking of which, the next couple of episodes of Succotash will hopefully come out very quickly. Bam, bam, bam. Because they’ll be focused around interviews I did while I was at the festival.
I’ll be playing clips from many of the episodes of the podcasts that were done at the festival as well.
A big shout out to our Honorary Associate Producer Tyson Saner, who's been doing an amazing amount of clip harvesting on behalf of this show.
I got to be a guest on Chillpak Hollywood Hour during their live appearance at the PodFest, and you'll hear not only hear a clip from that episode but also some chats I had in the Podcast Lab with Dean Haglund, Phil Leirness, and Lily Holleman - all three not only associated with Chillpak with the still-in-production film The Ladykillers as well.
The 10 Most Active Show In The Stitcher Top 100 Comedy Podcast List
This is the rundown of the ten shows on Stitcher's Top 100 Comedy Podcast list that have moved up or down the charts the most this past week.
37. The Smartest Man In The World +28
42. The Mark & Lynda Podcast -34
63. The Dana Gould Hour +44
64. This Week In Blackness Radio +15
65. The Tenderloins Podcast +98
68. DVDASA with David Choe & Asa Akira -32
78. Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine +48
79. SModcast >> FeAB -40
82. Answer Me This! +16
91. Who’s Paying Attention +15
The podcast at the top of the list - The Smartest Man In The World - is hosted by improv great and friend Greg Proops, who is also releasing a video special on October 22nd. Available online, you can find Greg Proops: Live at Musso & Frank at Chill.com.
The Clips
The Steven Brody Steven Festival of Friendship
Our friend Tyson Saner harvested this clip from The Steven Brody Stevens Festival of Friendship podcast and I’m glad. I really like Brody and hadn’t had a chance to even hear his podcast yet. Plus I also like James Adomian, who is an amazing vocal talent and funny as hell to boot. His “Maron in Space” bit on the IFC Channel is hilarious.
Doug Loves Movies
My first clip from one of the LA PodFest shows comes from Doug Loves Movies with Doug Benson – one of the few podcasts out of the 40 they had that I actually had the time to watch. The one this year wasn’t as crazy as last year’s, which was unhinged. (The RC helicopter nametag was back, but no sign of last year's infant…) He had Jimmy Pardo, Nick Thune, DC Pierson, and David Huntsberger on stage with him, but this clip is before the guests even came out, when Doug clears the air about Mr. Belvedere’s balls.
Improv 4 Humans
Matt Besser’s show was at the PodFest but THIS clip is from another live appearance that Tyson Saner grabbed. It’s from Bumbershoot in Seattle and Tyson says he liked this pull because it’s very “Hi, this is who we are and here we go!” Featuring Tim Meadows, Horatio Sanz & Brian Huskey, it’s also based around the Harold structure for you improv wonks, which lends itself pretty well to a podcast.
The Kira Soltanovich Show
Comedian Kira Soltanovich was all over the LA PodFest. Every time I turned around, there she was, either interviewing someone or being interviewed herself. She hasn’t really been on my radar until now, but I got to see her perform live at the late Saturday night Standup Smash! Show they did there and now I’m a fan. In this clip that Tyson grabbed, we hear part of Kira’s interview with Laraine Newman.
Just Jump To The End
It’s interesting to see how many siblings pop up as podcast hosts. One of the best ones is My Brother, My Brother and Me but there also the Sibling Rivalry podcast, the Kamenetsky Brothers Land O’ Lakers podcast and a whole bunch of other ones. One I just found out about is Jump To The End, featuring brother-sister team Scott Fitzman and Molly Harris. Their show’s Twitter page describes the p’cast as “Two grown siblings talking shit about people, places, and things.” In our clip they talk about revisiting cartoons and other entertainment from their childhood, and what it’s like exposing THEIR kids to it.
The Indoor Kids
Back to the LA PodFest, we get a taste of the live-in-front-of-a-live-audience version of The Indoor Kids. Hosted by the husband-and-wife team of comics Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon, this show focuses on video games. In this segment from the Fest with Blair Butler, they talk about video games that they’ve recently been depressed by and, also, games that they use as a carthasis.
Chillpak Hollywood Hour
For the last taste of the LA PodFest this episode, I pull a few minutes from the live Chillpak Hollywood Hour show, featuring Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness, with their special cameo guest…ME!
So there will be more clips from LA PodFest shows in the next few episodes. After that (or maybe in between some of that), I will have interviews with some comedians and some filmmakers who are in the throes of getting their Kickstarter campaigns rolling.
Rest up.
In the meantime, don't forget to pass that damn Succotash.
— Marc Hershon
This is NOT a full-fledged episode of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. It's a 22-minute-or-so freeway ramble from this morning – Friday, October 4th — cranked out hands-free while tooling in early morning sunshine down Interstate 5.
That's when I was on the road - having shoved off at a few minutes past 5 AM - heading for the 2nd Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival.
Unlike my last I-5 blast - which was more rant than ramble - I just ruminate on a few things around Succotash and podcasts in general. A little self-chatter about where the state of the art form is these days and some speculation on where it may be going.
There are NO clips in this brief "episette", nor is there a Henderson's Pants commercial, a Burst O' Durst or any of the other usual trapping of our show.
My plan - as I discuss in this epi - is to assemble upcoming Epi71 while I'm sitting in attendance at the PodFest. Hopefully while comfortably ensconced at a table in the "Podcast Lab", but somewhere at the La Meridian Delfina Hotel no matter what. So if you're there and want to see how I assemble a "normal" episode of the show, I'll be making the sausage right there in the open.
Enough babble for a short little epi like this. On with the show!
Oh, and don't forget to keep passing 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.
<— 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
It's been another couple of weeks since I last posted a new epi of Succotash, so I hope you didn't forget about us! We’ve got a bunch of podcast clips in store for you in this – Epi67 of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast.
I really appreciate you sticking around and downloading or streaming our show. The delay was kind of unavoidable – work has been crazy busy PLUS the computer I use for creating the episodes was damaged while I was on vacation. Fortunately (and coincidentally) past-and-future guest as well as friend-of-Succotash Dana Carvey wanted me to help him out with some writing on a project, so I bartered the job out in exchange for a spiffy new Mac to replace Fleegle, the official Succotash computer. (In memory of the first one, I am also calling the replacement Fleegle. It's not sentimental, it's just that all my files transferred over to the new one and it would be a hassle just to change its name…)
Honorary Associate Producer
I want to give a big shout out to our friend and avid listener Tyson Saner, who recently has been clipping some comedy podcasts that HE enjoys listening to and then passing the clips along to Succotash. We got a bunch of them from Tyson this show so I think I’m going to make him this episode's honorary associate producer. (It's probably temporary mainly because I think Tyson is about THIS close to launching his own podcast – at which point he won’t have any spare time left to cut clips for our show!) Thank you, Tyson, I really appreciate it.
Thanks, Charley!
Another friend of the show, Charley Miller, featured an interview that he did with ME back in April on a recent episode of his Random Variety Show podcast. And it wasn’t just an interview – this is a real tribute to our show. He plays a couple of classic Henderson’s Pants spots, played a clip of us clipping RVSP, and he even plugged I Hate People!, the business book I co-wrote a few years ago (which is still available online!) On top of all that wonderfulness, Charley dipped into his 1-year-old son’s college fund and kicked a very generous donation in through our Donate Button on the SuccotashShow.com website. So get up to http://RandomVarietyShow.com or iTunes or Stitcher or the PodGods network and give Charley’s episodes a listen. (You should also do like Charley did and feel free to donate a little bit to help us keep this podcast going!)
Those Great Succotash Recipes
One of my favorite features of our show is fast becoming the succotash recipes that appear at the very tail end of the show. The original idea came from Jabs at the Dhead Factor and Boganwood podcasts and it was fun to play an actual recipe for succotash after every show – I just grabbed the audio off of YouTube video where people were cooking the stuff. But after doing that for about 6 months, the well was running try. So I’ve been reaching out to some of the more creative comedy podcasters out there and asking them to record recipes. So far we’ve had Chef Eddie Vedder from the Tiny Odd Conversations podcast and Chef Terry with a Cajun recipe from the Don’t Quit Your Daycast podcast. This week’s episode features a recipe provided by Davian Dent over at the Bitter Sound Podcast through his Bitter Sound Cooking Class and Chef Matt Bubbles.
Chillpak Hollywood Hour
Even though we’ve been down for a couple of weeks, it seems our friends Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness over at the Chillpak Hollywood Hour podcast have been swamped and, although they’ve been very good about putting out their Monday episodes, they’ve been from the set of a new movie they’re producing, directing and acting in called The Ladykillers. As a result, they haven’t been mentioning Succotash, which is fine, but those have been the clips I’ve been playing here – when they mention our show, see? I guess we’ll just call the past couple of weeks a wash.
This Week In Comedy Podcasts
My latest review on Splitsider.com, for This Week In Comedy Podcasts LAST week, was The Jimmy Shubert Show. Veteran comic and actor, Jimmy Shubert has been around a while but only 2 episodes into the world of podcasting. And I’m going to interview Shubert on the next epi of Succotash, so how about that?
Boganwood Chronicles, Cont'd.
This show also features Episode 6 of Boganwood, the podcast mini-series out of Australia. Just before that rolls, there's more from an interview I had over Skype with the series' creator, Jason McNamara.
Double Dose O' Durst
Our Burst O' Durst segments have been piling up so in Epi67 we're running two - one towards the beginning and one in its usual spot near the end of the show.
The 10 Most Active Podcasts in The Stitcher Top 100 Comedy Podcasts
Here are the shows on Stitcher that shown the most movement - up OR down in the past week. Simple.
22. TalkS Hit with Eddie Ifft +9
42. Professor Blastoff +11
45. The Dana Gould Hour +66
50. Girl On Guy with Aisha Tyler +17
55. That American Life -16
63. The Champs with Neal Brennan & Moshe Kasher -25
66. The Black Guy Who Tips Podcast -15
70. The David Feldman Show -14
91. The Perfect 10 Podcast with Ralphie May & Lahna Turner +45
100. Yoshi Didn’t Podcast -16
THE CLIPS
The Dana Gould Hour
The funny and dark, or maybe it’s the darkly funny Dana Gould is back. I thought I was offline for a bit but he’s got me beat by a month. He has a better excuse – and I’m not telling tales out of school because he mentions it right in the opening to The Dana Gould Show – he was going through a divorce. When I saw him early in the summer, it was just getting started but now most of the hysteria is done with and he getting back to finding the funnier things in life. In this clip Dana and two of this episode’s guests – April Richardson and past Succotash guest Matt Weinhold – chat it up about ghosts in the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, which seques quite naturally into a discussion about cocaine. What?
The Perfect 10
Anyone familiar with Ralphie May’s comedy know that he’s got strong opinions about things. He’s not afraid of expressing them onstage and he’s definitely not afraid to jump into them on his podcast which he co-hosts with his wife, comedian Lahna Turner. It’s called the Perfect 10 and this week it jumped up into the Top 100 on Stitcher at #91, having leaped up 45 places since last week. In this clip, we discover that Ralphie not only doesn’t like wine very much but HATES the movie Sideways, that is all about wine and wine tasting and screwing. This clip precedes a visit that Lahna then makes to take a tour of a winery and to learn a little something about viticulture.
The Bitter Sound
The Bitter Sound podcast out of the UK is often a sort of audio experiment. Host Davian Dent likes bending sound and structure in interesting and – often – disturbing ways. In the spirit of the BBC over there, Davian’s recently concluded his second season of six shows and we have a clip from that last show where a friend has bought him something to commemorate the occasion.
Call Chelsea Peretti
Here is the first of the clips submitted by our buddy Tyson Saner. Tyson is not just an avid listener to podcasts but he’s a very supportive voice out there for a lot of shows – he’s constnatly retweeting stuff from not just Succotash but Chillpak Hollywood Hour, Combat Radio and others that he wants people to discover. I love this clip from Call Chelsea Peretti – a show we hadn’t gotten around to featuring yet – as Chelsea has guest Bill Burr on her podcast and you can tell they like mixing it up a bit.
Action Science Theater
We received a clip from Dan Bond, Brian Macken, and Dan Booth from their relatively new sketch-based podcast. The description on their website reads: “Action Science Theatre is a podcast in the style of a radio play, that mixes action, science, comedy and silly voices to create a welcome distraction from real life for 20 minutes or so. It is unquestionably the finest free online audio drama you can get without trying any others.” There’s a little bit of a feel of The Thrilling Adventure Hour, Superego and Illusionoid to the show – at least in the clip we have, but that’s not a bad thing at all.
Bertcast
We played a clip from the Bertcast – hosted by comedian Bert Kreischer – when he first launched about a year and a half ago. Our honorary associate producer Tyson Saner lets us revisit the Mancave this week when Bert lures Marc Maron out of the WTF garage on The Bertcast to get real about marriage, kids, drinking, as well as hopes and dreams.
Mission Log: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast
Tyson Saner comes through again with Mission Log: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast. It’s a one-of-a-kind thingeroo that I’d never heard of but is pretty interesting, especially if you’re into The Trek. It features Ken Ray and John Campion delving into EVERY episode of EVERY Star Trek TV series, recounting the plotlines and then delving into the character motivations, plot wrinkles and everything in-between. There’s a sense of humor to it, for sure, but this is for the true ST aficionado.
One Dollar Beer
Our next clip was sent in by Tommy Kay, one of the hosts of the One Dollar Beer podcast. Other hosts include Frost-T and Anthony Gunn. Tommy’s cover note says, "This is a snippet of our second episode entitled "Purple Lightsabers and White Women". It includes a clip from a segment where one of the hosts reveals some of his list of confessions and secrets that he never told anybody, along with reactions from the other hosts. Thank You." No, no - thank YOU, Tommy, for sending the clip in. Enjoy your first taste of One Dollar Beer…
There it is, Epi67 of Succotash, all neatly wrapped up and ready to pass along to your friends!
– Marc Hershon
Aloha! I was delayed getting Epi66 out because I was out of town in Hawaii for a vacation last week and pretty much technology free. Had a great time but it was one of those vacations that you need a vacation to recover from when you get back. Or I would have if it wasn't for the fact I knew that folks would be clamoring for their next helping of Succotash!
This episode marks that first time since we started over two and a half years ago that pretty much all the clips were sent in by comedy podcasters. I usually am out there, sweating in the cloud, harvesting clips myself so it was quite a treat to get back from vacation and find the TweetSack brimming over with sweet, sweet clippage.
The exception is this show's visit to the Chillpak Hollywood Hour, where Phil Leirness reveals to Dean Haglund the subject of a Skype call he and I had, along with confederate Taylor Ripley. We've begun the earliest stages of trying to put a new podcast network together. Too early to reveal much more than that, but the ball is rolling.
I love that my friends in the Pod Mafia - which is not a network but a closeknit bunch of podcasters who share information, visit each other's shows and do various favors for each other - have begun supply this show with our "post farewell" succotash recipes. For those hardy few listeners who venture past announcer Bill Heywatt's signature "Good-bye!" at the end of each show, I've been laying an Easter egg since the beginning of the year: The audio of recipes for succotash that I've been snipping off of YouTube. But I've cleaned out that pantry and need more fodder. This week the show is visited by Chef Terry, courtesy of Ed Wallick and his Don't Quit Your Daycast podcast, for a Cajun version of the popular Early American dish.
We continue to serialize Jason McNamara's Boganwood pod mini-series this week, with Episode 5. As we've been doing, that chapter is prefaced with a snippet of a conversation I had with "Jabs" about the origins of the show.
And, as is standard, we've got our two-minute Burst O' Durst provided by the waterboard of political comedy Will Durst.
THE 10 MOST ACTIVE SHOWS IN THE STITCHER TOP 100 COMEDY PODCAST LIST
Here's the hottest action - up OR down - on Stitcher's Top 100 Comedy Podcast lineup:
35. SModcast >> FEaB +25
39. SModcast >> Edumacation +13
53. Who Charted? -15
59. Comedy Of The Week +15
71. If I Were You -30
77. Sex Squad +19
82. Superego +55
90. The Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling +22
91. Harmontown +36
99. That American Life +102
SPLITSIDER
Over on Splitsider.com, you can find my review for This Week In Comedy Podcasts. I'm listening in on The Bugle podcast, co-hosted by John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman. You're probably aware that Oliver's been filling in on The Daily Show since early June, when host Jon Stewart took time off to direct a movie. I wanted to see if he was still showing up for the podcast gig and, indeed, he's managing to pull it off.
THE CLIPS
The Joey Medina Show
Joey Medina is a New York comedian right out of the Bronx. You may have seen him on The Original Latin Kings Of Comedy DVD or performing in clubs around the country. And he can be seen in the classic film Zombie Strippers. His podcast is episoding in the 60’s now – see, I’m making up verbs: episoding – and he alternates between interviewing comedians and porn stars. (It’s kind of amazing how often comedians with podcasts interview porn stars or strippers. Are there porn star podcasts where they interview comedians? Let me know.) The Joey Medina Show had jumped several HUNDRED places a couple of weeks ago to get into the Top 100 on Stitcher and, although it’s slid out of there this week, it’s still going strong. Here’s a slice from a recent epi where he asks guest Tessa Lane how she got into doing porn.
The Geek Generation
We got an email from our friend Rob Logan over at The Geek Generation podcast that reads: Hi, Marc! With the social media attention that Sharknado has been receiving, I thought your listeners might enjoy some exclusive audio from the sequel! And he sent along a clip from his and co-jhost Mike Volpe's Epi143 with that exclusive trailer.
Foster The Podcast
We got a clip in from comedian Justin Foster and his namesake podcast, now 20-something episodes in. He’s in LA, originally from Dallas, and sent along this note: Here's a clip from my podcast Foster the Podcast, the official show of comedian Justin Foster. Short, hilarious, and insane stories from some of the most interesting people I know. Missing kidneys, partying with navy seals, and getting fired by James Franco, are just a few of the stories you will hear every week. I’m not sure who his guest is in this clip, but it’s someone who got drunk from a little person pouring booze from a hut behind a bar somewhere, who then got arrested. The comic, not the midget.
An Idiot At Home
This show's pretty new – there have only been five or six episodes of An Idiot At Home – and it comes from host James Proudlock and permaguest Karl Stott over in Shotten Colliery in the UK. It’s a podcast that focuses on music AND comedy which, in the case, seems to be drawn from the news.
Positive Podcast
I appreciate Adam and Josh of the Positive Podcast sending a clip with a nice note: Hey saw your post on twitter here is a clip from episode 23: Testosterone Zone the latest episode of our podcast. Thanks for doing something like this love to get new listeners. We will shout you guys out next episode. Hope you Enjoy! That’s all great but Adam and Josh didn’t send along much information about their actual show. After a bit of digging, though, I think they’re from Chickopee, Massachusetts, and that their show bounces around between music and comedic commentary. In this clip they chatter on about public drunkenness.
Talking Rubbish
The show's last submitted clip comes via email from a husband-and-wife podcasting team, Eric and Stacey, who host Talking Rubbish. Their cover note into the TweetSack reads: Hello Succotash! Love the show (first heard of you on Podcasting101) and thought I'd try to get you a clip of our show "Talking Rubbish" with Eric and Stacey. This is from show 21 “Ballwater / the worst show ever”, its the very end of the show and I try to explain one of my many phobias (while drunk) to Stacey who ends up not being very supportive and just starts cry laughing. Hope its good enough to be on your show, Thanks! Eric Yes, Eric – congratulations! Your clip IS good enough for Succotash!
Epi 66, at just a hair over 57 minutes, may be the shortest episode we've done this year. Next week should be more robust but hey, for what you're paying, you're still getting a hell of a show! So get out there and pass the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon
