Yes, ‘tis I, Marc Hershon, your host and third base coach for Epi115 of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. And this is yet another Succotash Clips episode.
Been a while since we’ve sat down at the Succotash microphones and had a good long yackfest with someone. But that’s about to change, as I am on the eve of making the Kessel Run from San Francisco to Los Angeles, in order to make it into town for the 4th Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival this weekend. If you’re in the Southland and want to check it out, the shindig is at the Sofitel in West Hollywood, right across from the humungoid Beverly Center. You can get tickets and information at http://LAPodfest.com
I’m anticipating a whole lot of talkin’ going on, both from folks talking to me in the SquareSpace Podcast Lab AND from me talking to podcasters on their shows. I have some specifics about some of that action coming up when we get to the Tweetsack segment later on in the show.
Podclip Roundup
Clips featured this episode have been snippeted from: Chillpak Hollywood Hour, Illusionoid, The JV
Club, The Manchild Show, The Red & Jay Show, Studious Studs, The Bitter
Sound, and Tiny Odd Conversations. There's also a special teaser for the ManBuyCow Podcast! (If you’re a comedy podcaster and would like us to include a clip from your show, you can use our direct upload link to get us your 3-5 minute MP3 clip – it’s http://hightail.com/u/succotash.)
We also have a classic commercial for Henderson’s Too Cool For S'cool Pants, a Burst O’ Durst with political comedian & social commentator Will Durst, musing about what some of the presidential candidates may have been up to during their summer vacations, and a new song about spiders from frequent contributor Abner Serd.
Good Cause Alert!
Our old buddy Ethan Dettenmaier, host of Combat Radio, has a new project out to raise much-needed money for social services, called Combat Radio Halloween. It’s got a bunch of crazy good talent on it, reading spooky stories and generally ripping All Saints’ Day a new a-hole. Download YOUR copy of Combat Radio Halloween by clicking over to http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/combatradiohalloween
Clips
Chillpak Hollywood Hour
Dean Haglund & Phil Leirness
I included a clip from Chillpak HOllywood Hour this week, hosted by podcast royalty Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness, not just because they amuse me but because they employed this show's proprietary coinage of the term tweetsack. There's a bit of echo on Dean's side of the conversation in this clip - apparently, co-hosting form Sydney, Australia is not without it's audio aberrations. (There's a plan, incidentally, to have yours truly as a Skyped-in guest for their episode next week to report on the Podfest and also to give a review of Ear Buds, the new documentary about podcasters and podcasting that will debut at the Podfest on Friday night.)
The JV Club
Janet Varney with guest Kelly Carlin
The last time we had Ms. Janet Varney grace our microphones was almost a year ago at LAST year’s LA Podfest. I just saw her in a rough cut of a new movie we’re talked about here before: Diani and Devine Meet The Apocalypse. And she’s hilarious, as always. You hear her voice all over the place, including as the voice of Korra in The Legend of Korra, and as the voice of Nerdist.com. She’s 170 episodes into her podcast, The JV Club, where she mostly interviews women of show business — except during her Boys Of Summer series, which just ended. Her latest guest is also a friend and past guest of Succotash — dating back to Episode 9, no less — and it’s none other than Kelly Carlin, who has been touring with her one-woman show, A Carlin Home Companion: Growing Up With George. She and Janet sharing some things in common, including being the only child in their respective families.
Illusionoid!
Paul Bates, Lee Smart & Nug Nahrgang
One of my favoritest shows ever, Illusionoid!, just kicked off their 5th year and 5th season of podcasting. The Terrific Trio from Toronto — Paul Bates, Lee Smart, and Nug Nahrgang — still the best name in podcasting — runs a fantastic improvised sci-fi themed show that is consistently funny. I just reviewed the episode this particular clip is from for Splitsider.com and Huffington Post. The episode is called “Day Million”, and features three owners of a copy store that has somehow existed for over 2000 years…and their lone customer on this fateful day.
ManBuyCow
Rufus & Howard
We normally don’t play promos for podcasts on Succotash because, well, I think clips make better promos than…promos. BUT I have been waiting patiently enough for the return of the ManBuyCow Podcast with Rufus and Howard. Season 3 is imminent and there’s finally word that it’s almost here.
The ManChild Show
Vintendo, Pistol Pete, Nicole Cole, Rev. Sir Chano, Jessie BoomBattz
From ManBuyCow we go to The Manchild Show. We’ve been getting a lot of Twitter action from @PistolePeteMC, who is one of the hosts of Manchild. He tells me that, since he’s come onboard, he’s been trying to steer the show away from some of comedy’s low-hanging fruit — which I assume is a metaphor for testicle jokes. Pete really wanted me to play something from their next episode but it’s not ready yet. So I’m playing the clip I harvested from their previous installment because, well, who knows? The network may punch our ticket and we’ll be out of here before the next show starts.
Tiny Odd Conversations
Travis Clark and Brandy Clark
We haven’t played anything from Tiny Odd Conversations for a bit, which means we completely missed out on celebrating their Episode 200. If you haven’t caught TOCpod, it’s with our friends Travis and Brandy Clark, a delightful couple from Los Angeles. First of all, kids, congrats on hitting your Epi 200! And second of all, this clip has Trav and Brandy ruminating about: How do parents manage to let their kids try all sorts of sports and activities without being fabulously rich? (I manage to catch up with the Clarks pretty much every time I get to LA, so I know that they’ve been busy and getting their episodes out regularly has been tough. Believe me, I know what that’s like, and I don’t blame ‘em a bit.)
Red & Jay Show
Red & Jay
Red and Jay are back! Red and Jay are back! I actually don’t know who these guys are, but according to their homesite, they're five episodes in after being off for a year. There’s not a lot of info on these guys on their site, just their first names. Or nicknames, maybe? I don’t know. But I DO know they are opinionated. About stuff that some of us probably don’t even thing a lot about. In the snippet we harvested, they’re going off about HR. Human Resources, that is…
The Bitter Sound
Davian Dent & Matt Bubbles
One of the staunchest supporters of this show and what we do here — namely, let YOU know about comedy podcasts — is Davian Dent over in the UK. He’s involved in a couple of podcasts, including Strange Times and his own The Bitter Sound, a show that’s an ongoing experiment and experience in audio wonderment. The ol’ BS has been down for a bit, but it’s coming back, baby! And Davian, along with his sometimes sidekick, Matt Bubbles, created this preview of a piece of the upcoming first show of his new season just for you…and it's one of the more disgusting uses for the "theater of the mind" in recent memory.
Studious Studs
Shaq Scott and Terrance
Next up is a clip from the Studious Studs podcast with Shaq Scott and Terrance. I found these guys because they’d re-tweeted something of ours. Found out they’re into their second season, after taking a break for the summer. Their website describes the show as “A weekly podcast that sits down and discusses life's obstacles and events in a very funny way.” Okay, I’ll buy that. This clip clues us in on what the guys have to say about a recent Chris Brown concert…
Thanks for reading this blog and, hopefully, taking time out to listen to the actual podcast. That's what it's there for. Don’t forget to jump up to iTunes to rate and review us – that’s about the only thing that gets us noticed. If you want to flip us a few coins, feel free to access the Donate button or the Amazon banner or our Succotashery, all through our homesite at http://SuccotashShow.com.
Until the next time we invade your earholes, thanks for passing the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon
Yes, it’s me. Marc Hershon. Your host and drum major for Epi114 — the Labor Day Edition — of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. And it’s another Succotash Clips installment – loading you up with a lot of clips because in a few weeks I’ll be down at the 4th Annual LA Podcast Festival, and I will have a pile of interviews from our stakeout in the SquareSpace Podcast Lab. which means we should have some bodacious Succotash Chats upon my return.
I’ve harvested some of this episodes clips, while others have been sent in by comedy podcasters just like you…if you’re a comedy podcaster, that is. Of course, if you’re a listener to a comedy podcast you like, you can drop me a line, at marc@SuccotashShow.com and let us know the show you like. Then I can send our erstwhile Associate Producer Tyson Saner out to clip an episode from it.
And for you comedy podcasters, you can even upload you clip directly to us via our upload link: http://hightail.com/u/succotash.
On the show this time around we’re featuring clips from Broken Filter, Geek Blast, Grabbing Lunch, 98 Problems, Rude Alchemy, Stab!, and Tall Tales with our friend Abner Serd.
Bursts O' Durst
We also have a double dose of Durst, this episode, with resident political comedian and social commentator Will Durst, with two of our Burst O’ Durst segments. Will is pointing out the benefits of the looonnnnnnggggg Presidential election campaign, and then he's got a special Labor Day Burst heading your way.
In addition this show, we have a visit to the Podcast Graveyard, a brand new Henderson’s Pants commercial and a dip into the ol’ TweetSack.
Appearing Live
Coming up live this month, on Thursday evening, September 17th, I’ll be hosting an evening of inspirational and informative speakers as part of the TedX Marin event. I’m just there to keep things moving –but it’s a great slate of speakers that you can’t see because I just found out the event is sold out. So why am I telling you about it? Bragging, probably.
Then, right after that, Friday through Sunday, September 18th through 20th, I’ll be – as I said – at the LA Podfest. And you can be there, too, because that is NOT sold out! Tix and deets at http://lapodfest.com. And you can look for me with our Succotash merch, mics and mayhem in the SquareSpace Podcast Lab.
Put Your Eyes Where Your Ears Are
We’ve been putting out a little webazine the past couple of months, The Succotash Daily. It’s aggregated content around podcasts and comedy and, sometimes, comedy websites. You can check it out and subscribe at http://hersh.co/dailysucc, and it will be delivered to your inbox every morning.
Podcast Graveyard
I chose to exhume this episode’s Podcast Graveyard victim, The Comedy Buffet, because I realized I hadn’t heard from Michael Powell, the host of the podcast for a while, nor had I seen any tweets from the show. Turns out it went tits up a while back – Mike contacted me to let me know he’d just gotten kind of bored with it, but that he’s cooking up some new concept and may be back with a different show soon. He’s done a great job of hiding the body, as I was having a lot of trouble trying to find a past show to clip, but then I remembered that we’d featured The Comedy Buffet way back in 2011, in our epi number SEVEN. In the clip, Michael chats about diabetes with his guests, Jason and Jesse, from the Van Full of Candy podcast. (Haven't heard from VFoC for a while, either — are they next up in the graveyard???)
Clips
Rude Alchemy
This past week, for my podcast review on Splitsider and the Huffington Post, rather than just listen to a single episode of a show, I gobbled up the entire third season of a podcast called Rude Alchemy. The season is only five episodes, and they’re pretty short, so I don’t want you thinking I was really going crazy. The title for the season is The Plague Clowns, and it’s a really well put-together show. Solid writing and performances, a layered story – TWO stories, really – which is compelling enough to make you want to binge listen the hell out of it.
Grabbing Lunch
Podcasters who are wondering about good ways to get clipped on Succotash obviously don’t listen enough to realize that if you can somehow feature me or Succotash on your podcast, that will sually do the trick. I was in LA a couple of months ago and was invited to chow down by Matt Knudsen, the host of the Grabbing Lunch podcast, at Izzy’s Deli in Santa Monica. We were joined by friend-of-Succotash Cole Stratton, the co-host of the Pop My Culture podcast and co-founder of the San Francisco Sketchfest. It was a wide-ranging chat – we even talked about Matt’s Hungarian in-laws…
Geek Blast
By The Way
Incidentally, if you’re looking to get YOUR comedy podcast reviewed by one of the gang at This Week In Comedy Podcasts, you can send an email to podcasts@splitsider.com. That will go out to the whole group of us that contribute to the column and you stand a better chance of having someone want to review your show.
Extra Bits
John Eder, the brains behind the To The Manor Borne By Robots podcast, informs us that his show is in the finals of the 2015 LA Weekly Best Of Competition, in the Best Podcast category. Which is pretty high honors – it's competing with Marc Maron's WTF and The Tom Leykis Show. Let's help him win this - but we only have until September 9th to vote! Go to http://readerschoice.laweekly.com and do your thing!
In closing this week, even though no one ever clicks on our Donate button anymore at http://SuccotashShow.com, nor buys anything from our webstore at http://hersh.co/succotashery, I feel it's my duty to make you aware that it IS within your power to help me pay for this relentless piledriver of a show, the sole purpose of which is to spread the word about comedy podcasts near and far. We also have an Amazon banner at the top of the page which generates kickbacks whenever someone uses it to shop at Amazon but, as far as I know, only Phil Leirness over at Chillpak Hollywood Hour uses it. Feel free to avail yourself of that avenue of Succotash support if you so desire.
And if you have no disposable income to shower upon us, your moral support in the way of ratings and reviews at iTunes, "thumbs ups" at Stitcher, Likes on our Facebook page, or hearts over at SoundCloud go a long way to putting smiles on the faces of me, producer Joe Paulino, announcer Bill Heywatt, and Associate Producer Tyson Saner.
Until we hit your earholes again, thanks for passing the Succotash.
— Marc Hershon
Yes, it’s me. Marc Hershon. Your host and docent for Epi113 of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. We’re back with a Succotash Clips installment, thanks largely to the efforts of our Associate Producer Tyson Saner, not to mention the savvy comedy podcasters who have uploaded their own clips directly to us via our upload link, which is http://hightail.com/u/succotash.
Coming up, clipwise, this show we have Cardboard, The Chillpak Hollywood Hour / Am I Right, Ladies?, The Magic Tavern, Radio Dan, the Talk Blocked podcast, The Mo Show, Wampa Stampa, and the We Are Not Alone podcast.
We also are featuring a double dose of our Burst O’ Durst segment with our resident political comedian and social commentator Will Durst - and he lavishes his vitriol on Donald Trump, and the TweetSack. We not only have a classic Henderson's Pants commercial this episode, but we've got an additional sponsor and a commercial from Empire State Gas, the patron for Chillpak Hollywood.
IN OTHER REALMS
Before I get to all that stuff, just a couple of mentions for stuff going on where I’ll be appearing live this September. I’ve been asked to host the TedX Marin Talk 2015 in San Rafael. There’s an amazing lineup of inspirational, informative speakers lined up and, somehow, me. That’s going to be on Thursday evening, September 17th — click the link for more info. Directly after that – and I do mean directly – I’ll be down south for the 4th Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival, September 18-20. I’m going to do my best to nail down a spot in the SquareSpace Podcast Lab and interview folks passing through. This time, I’ll try to post everything while I’m there so I don’t end up with a humungous backlog of interviews that take months to unspool. I STILL haven’t gotten to all the ones I did last year. Shameful. You don’t have to be a podcaster to come by and watch some of your favorite podcasts happening live that weekend. And me. Not officially a part of the podfest but so what?
PODCAST GRAVEYARD
This episode's exhumed podcast The Evil Teddy Bear Podcast, hacked out of its eternal rest by Tyson. Hosted by Korey Epps and Mike Capps, I was disappointed to learn that it had gone "off mic" this past April. The clip we have is from two episodes before their last one, with guest Will Harrison, in an episode entitled The @Unheard Nerd Strikes Again.
CLIPS
Chillpak Hollywood Hour / Am I Right, Ladies?
We have a sneak preview of sorts from a new podcast. If you caught Epi112 last time, I interviewed Phil Leirness of the Chillpak Hollywood Hour and Lily Holleman, who will be co-hosting a new spinoff show from Chillpak, entitled Am I Right, Ladies? That show features Lily and comedian/actor Karen Forman and will be kicking off…soon, was the best answer I’ve gotten out of them. But a couple of weeks ago they did their last stint filling in for Phil and the southward-traveling Dean Haglund, who has moved to Australia. It's not only seems like a great example of two smart women hosting a podcast, which will be largely about smart women, but they also – in the grand tradition of Chillpak, mentioned me.
The Mo Show Podcast
Mocean Melvin and a big cast of voice actors Unabashedly, I’ve got a soft spot for well-produced sketch comedy podcasts. And I’ve been turned onto a new one – The Mo Show, starring voiceover performer Mocean Melvin and a crew of funny, talented voice actors out of Los Angeles. BTW, about a week ago or so, The Mo Show decided to honor us on Twitter by proclaiming us the Best Show Named After a Food Containing Lima Beans! So thank you, Mo Show!
Wampa Stompa
Associate Producer Tyson Saner has harvested a bunch of clippage for today’s epi. One of them is the Wampa Stompa podcast. It’s a newish show where the three co-hosts — Jon, Gus, and Candy – “talk about anything ranging from Star Wars to boxing to current events.” Seems like two rather specific topics followed by kind of anything goes. In this clip, from Wampa Stompa Epi8, the hosts speculate on everything shown in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer. They also rank their top 3 Pixar films, along with what purely animated Disney films are their favorite.
Hello from The Magic Tavern
A couple of weeks ago I reviewed a podcast called Hello from The Magic Tavern for Splitsider.com and the Huffington Post. Now, there are a number of Dungeon & Dragon and other role playing podcasts floating around, like Nerd Poker with Brian Posehn and Friends over on Earwolf. But, as I mentioned in my review, this is the first one I’ve found where characters who might otherwise be heard adventuring are actually just hanging out in a tavern, actually recording a podcast rather than dungeon crawling or whatever. The set-up is that the main host, Arnie Neikamp, fell through a magical rift behind a Chicago area Bunger King into the mystical land of Foon. (No relation, as far as I know, to friend-of-Succotash Eric Furniss of the From Out Of Nowhere podcast, or as it is otherwise known, the FOONcast.) Anyway, Arnie has set up shop at the Vermilion Minotaur, AKA The Magic Tavern, with his co-hosts: The wizard Usidore, played by Matt Young, and Chunt the Changeling, voiced by Adal Rifai. In the clip we're featuring, from episode 19, their guest is someone near and dear to my heart, given my background in branding: Merlinda Flimpery (Irene Marquette), a Namer – a person who gives secret names to people so that no one can discover their power.
Talk Blocked
This clip was provided directly from gents of the Talk Blocked podcast, who sent a download link into the Tweetsack, at clips@SuccotashShow.com. You can also upload your 3-5 minute clip directly to us at http://Hightail.com/u/succotash. Cody and Steve-O (NOT the same Steve-O from the Jackass movies) have put out about 20 episodes of their show now. Our clip comes from Epi18 and features their guest, Dr. Mike, an actual ER doc, talking about a young man who came in complaining of stomach pains. The diagnosis turned out to be a bit more graphic that one might suppose.
Cardboard!
We were talking role playing games a couple of clips ago. Now, thanks to Tyson, we’re switching to board games, with a clip from the Cardboard! podcast with host Rich Sommer. Billing himself as a “board game evangelist”, Sommer is known from his appearance on Mad Men. And, in fact, this clip features two of his castmates – Michael Gladis and Aaron Staton. Gladis has the host relate his favorite “chess photo” story in this segment.
The Radio Dan Show
I got to know Dan Delgado, aka “Radio Dan”, of the Radio Dan Show, last year at the LA Podfest. We were both hunkered down in the Podcast Lab pretty much the whole time, so we got to talking, watching each other’s equipment when the other one wanted to take a break, you know – Brothers in Podcasting. Not sure if he’s making the trek out from Boca Raton, Florida, again this year, but he’d sent along a little…I’d guess you’d call it rant… about his unsung 40 years of sobriety, as he sees it.
We Are Not Alone
Holy cats! As previously mentioned, I’m a big fan of folks doing audio sketch comedy for their podcasts, especially when it well-written and fun. And that’s got Britain’s We Are Not Alone written all over. They’re four seasons in and it’s all put together like campy 1950’s science fiction. This show is writen by Jon Thrower and Andrew Fletcher. They both act in it and there is a bunch of other cast members voicing what you’re hearing as well. Here’s a taste from epi 3 of the lastest season, entitled, Wonderbirds Are GoI
That's what's in store for your ears with Epi113 of Succotash Clip!. Thanks so much for the listen. We appreciate your patronage. If you’d like to help us to defray the cost of production on Succotash, feel free to visit our homesite, http://SuccotashShow.com, and click on the Donate button there. Or on the Amazon banner at the top of the page – everything you buy on that particular shopping trip gives us a time percentage. OR you can purch some merch through the Succotashery – t-shirts, mugs, all stort of gewgaws can be yours.
Until next time, thanks for passing the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon
Yes, it’s me. Marc Hershon. Your host and cruise director for Epi112 of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast.
This is a Succotash Chats episode, featuring a delightful conversation with our Special Guests: Phil Leirness of The Chillpak Hollywood Hour and Lily Holleman, one of the two hosts of a brand new podcast called Am I Right, Ladies?
We recorded the chat on their lovely rooftop at the edge of Hollywood as the sun was setting, drinking martinis. I think this is the most civilized episode of this show recorded so far. (Please forgive the occasional gusts of wind, traffic noise, and sirens that make listening a bit of a challenge during portions of the interview…)
I've featured both Phil and Lily on the show before but it's been a while and this is the first time that we've had them on doing a "team interview". In addition to Phil's long time co-hosting of Chillpak — now into it's ninth year – he is a filmmaker, an acting teacher, and a violence prevention specialist. Lily is a film producer, a stage and screen actress, a writer, and the toast of the 90-year-old Los Angeles Breakfast Club.
One of the other reasons I was doing the "SoCal Shuffle" this weekend is to hang out on the Grabbing Lunch podcast with Matt Knudsen, where I’ll be dining with him and the co-host of the Pop My Culture podcast – and past Succotash guest – Cole Stratton, later today. I’ll let you know when the episode of Matt’s show drops.
In addition to our convo with Phil and Lily – or “Phily”, to give them their appropriate Hollywood “Power Couple” portmanteau – we’ve got some delicious Burst O’ Durst with our resident political comedian and social commentator Will Durst. Iin fact, we have a double dose o' Durst — the first segment deals with the fracas over the Confederate Flag, while the second is Will's observance of the 4th of July holiday in the US of A.
We also have an ad from Henderson’s Pants – this episode is brought to you by Henderson’s new Pain Pants. We’ll dip into the ol’ Tweetsack. And we DO have a couple of clips – I know it’s a Chats episode – but these clips will be from the shows of our two guests.
On the podcast review front, just to keep you up to speed, this past week I reviewed a somewhat silly podcast called Hello From The Magic Tavern, a show featuring sort of D&D characters that are actually hosting a podcast rather than adventuring, and it’s actually pretty funny. I’ll clip ‘em the next Succotash Clips epi. And I also mentioned a couple of other p-casts: A new one to me called You Better DON’T and a special extra episode of Welcome to Night Vale. You can find those reviews and mentions up at Splitsider and Huffington Post.
Next episode will be a Succotash Clips show. We've already got a full rack lined up but it you're a comedy podcaster and would like us to feature your show, you can upload a 3-5 minute MP3 clip directly to us at http://hightail/u/succotash.
Until next time, thanks for passing the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon
