Yes, it’s me, Marc Hershon. Your host and non-Presidential candidate for Epi118 of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. This is another Succotash Clips episode. It’s been awhile since we’ve had a long Succotash "Chatsisode", but I have a few potential interviews lined up for the next couple of weeks. We’ll see if anyone wants to talk to me and, if they do, then we’ll see if you want to listen to it.
See how that works?
For new listeners to this here podcast, and just as a reminder to you old ears out there, we feature clips of other comedy podcasts as way to let you know what’s going on out there in Podcastland. It’s basically a public service and, checking the level of donations lately, we’re definitely not-for-profit. Oh, we’ll take your money. We just need to find someone who wants to give us some. We also interview podcasters, comedians, and comedy podcasters, as well as other interesting people we happen to find.
The last episode of this show ran kinda long – about an hour and a half – and one of the reasons I split Succotash up into Clips and Chats in the first place was to get the show length down a little bit. This week should be a tight, tidy little program. Which means you can get back to your regular life, already in progress, very quickly.
Coming up, clipwise, in this installment of Succotash Clips is Pipedream, Radio BrendoMan, Think Again, VICE, and Worst Collection Ever. In addition we have a double dose of our Burst O’ Durst segment with comedian & social commentator Will Durst, a classic Henderson’s Pants commercial, and another end-of-the-show acapella song by regular contributor Abner Serd.
Other Business
I don’t think I have much in the way of business to get to, just the usual stuff nobody seems to pay much attention to, such as clicking the Donate button at the http://SuccotashShow.com website to help us out since we don’t have sponsors other than Henderson’s Pants…which doesn’t pay us squat. And if money is something you don’t want to spoil us with because you’re afraid that me, our producer Joe Paulino and announcer Bill Heywatt will just go out and drink it up – you may be right, actually – then get up to iTunes and give us a nice rating and a short review.
Our friend Travis Clark of Tiny Odd Conversations is in town this week, performing Tuesday night at the Throckmorton Theatre, so I’m going to get together with he and his wife-sash-co-host…or is that co-host-slash-wife…Brandy for dinner.
And if you’re in the Marin County area on Thursday night this week, I’ll be MC’ing a screening of the 3 Still Standing documentary and a live comedy show by the three guys featured in the film: Johnny Steele, Larry Brown, and our very own Will Durst. That will be at the Rafael Film Center this Thursday night starting at 7:30 PM. There’s a link in the blog piece for this episode at http://SuccotashShow.com to get more information.
Clips
Worst Collection Ever
For our first clip, I’m going to turn the hands of time back about a month, to the 4th Los Angeles Podcast Festival. That’s when I got to be a guest on a podcast called The Worst Collection Ever, co-hosted by friends-of-Succotash Shawn Marek and his wife, Jen Stansfield-Marek. They have a perverse pride in their absolutely dreadful, terible, wonderful comic book collection. Books that no one seems to care about. It’s more an Island of Misfit Comics. This visit with them was a year in the making because last year at the Podfest I had told Shawn that my favorite terrible comic character is DC’s The Creeper. So he and Jen combed through their collection and dredged up an issue of the Brave and the Bold featuring The Batman teaming up with The Creeper to stop a mysterious villain made out of paper.
Radio BrendoMan
Speaking of the LA Podfest, our next clip was harvested by our associate producer Tyson Saner, who could not have known that when Brendan Creecy and Phil Vecchio of the Radio BrendoMan podcast were recording the episode this clip is from, that I was sitting just an arm’s length away in the SquareSpace Podcast Lab. I ever remember them doing this segment. But they never asked me to be on their podcast. Hmm…
Think Again
This past week, for Huffington Post and Splitsider.com, I reviewed the Think Again podcast with host Jason Gots and his guest, the great Norman Lear, producer of such TV touchstones as All In The Family, Good Times and Sanford & Son. It’s a cool premise for a podcast. Jason has his producer select and play three short audio clips from different topics that are taken from past guest on the Big Think website’s videocast. He doesn’t know which ones are coming up and neither does his guest. After each sound bite, they respond to the topic at hand. In the slice I’m about to play for you, Lear and Gots kick around Donald Trump and human cruelty. It starts out with the audio chunk that they’ll then respond to…
Pipedream
Tyson tracked down and clipped us a hunk of the Pipedream podcast, which is part of the ComedyPipe Network. That’s kind of all we’ve been able to find out about the show. Pipedream is apparently hosted by a trio of Albany, New York, comedians but it’s not easy to discover their names by ANY of the web presence we found. Tyson THINKS one is named “3D”. Beyond that, though, these guys need to get their PR together. Because it’s a pretty decent show and we should be able to know who the hosts are, right? In this clip, they talk to their guest — who IS identified — Harry White, a standup from New York and a Succotash fan. In fact, the only reason we found out about the show is that Harry clued us in that he was going to be on it. Hey, Harry! Who the hell are the guys you’re talking to?
The VICE Podcast
According to their entry over on PodBay, which is a great app for listening to your favorite podcasts, by the way, the VICE Podcast is a weekly discussion which delves inside the minds of some of the most interesting, creative, and bizarre people within the VICE universe. From the clip Tyson picks up for us, VICE’s host Reihan Salam gets comedian and musical genius Reggie Watts to reveal his agenda of world domination.
We’re all done with Succotash Clips, Epi 118, and that didn’t hurt a bit, did it? I’m going to give you a virtual lollypop for being so brave. Until next time, thanks very much for passing the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon
Yeppers, it’s me, Marc Hershon. Your host and inflatable arm-flailing tubeman for Epi117 of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. This is a Succotash Clips episode with one exception, which I’ll 'splain in a sec. I’m happy to have our associate producer Tyson Saner back helping me to harvest clips of podcasts far and wide. He was a little overwhelmed doing some moving recently so we gave him some well-earned vacation time from listenin’ and snippin’. But he’s back and we’ve got some interesting clips to get to.
I’m one week back from the 4th Annual LA Podcast Festival and what a time I had. I was mostly dug in at the SquareSpace Podcast Lab, interviewing a few podcasters and then cutting, prepping and uploading those "minisodes". (You can find them all listed, essentially, under Epi116 at http://SuccotashShow.com and iTunes. I forgot to get them up to SoundCloud, but I’ll do that soon just to have them up there as well.)
There was one last interview that I didn’t get a chance to produce and upload. That was with Michael John Simpson, co-host of The Something Something Experience podcast , so I’m going to break protocol — God, the network hates when I do this — and play that interview and a clip from Michael’s podcast as well.
In addition to his show, we’ve got clippage from The Chillpak Hollywood Hour, The Mild Adventures of Fred Stoller, Human Conversation, Taco Tuesday, The Talking Podcast, The Hooray Show, The New Hollywood podcast, and the Why Didn’t They Laugh? podcast.
We also have a double dose of our Burst O’ Durst segment, featuring political comedian and social commentator Will Durst, a classic Henderson’s Pants commercial, and an absurd folk song from our musical buddy, Abner Serd. Be sure to listen for that following Bill Heywatt’s closing credits.
Clips
Chillpak Hollywood Hour
Immediately following the LA Podfest, I was honored to be the first guest to Skype in on the Chillpak Hollywood Hour, with Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness, since they’ve gone international with Dean now hanging out down under in Australia. A little after 11 o’clock Sunday night, I pulled off the freeway into the parking lot of a KFC in Patterson, California, population 20,868. Dean and Phil wanted me to give them a review of the Ear Buds podcast documentary which had a couple of preliminary screenings at the podfest. In addition, I gave them and their listeners my take on the current State of the Podcast Union.
The New Hollywood
Brian Flaherty, host of The New Hollywood podcast, was our guest for Succotash Chats, Epi102, back at the end of the January of this year. I just reviewed his episode last week for both Splitsider and Huffington Post Entertainment, which featured his lengthy interview with the multi-talented and very entertaining Bill Hader. Since leaving SNL, Hader has been keeping himself busy – it seems like there is no acting job that guy won’t try – TV shows, commercials, and movies, including last year’s amazing The Skeleton Twins. Our clip features Hader outlining the audition process he had to go through to get on SNL.
Human Conversation
Last week was actually a review “two-fer” because I reviewed Human Conversation in addition to The New Hollywood. Human Conversation is a podcast that’s 20-something episodes in and I hadn’t heard about it until co-host Wayne Federman waded into the Podcast Lab at the LA Podfest. Wayne and I go way back but we’re not in touch all that often and this was the first I’d heard of his show, which he co-hosts with Erin McGathy, the significant other of Dan Harmon, the mayor of Harmontown. In the course of the show, she and Wayne talk about a variety of topics but the things is that neither is allowed to look up facts, figures, names, or anything else germane to the topics they discuss. Here, they talk about music and getting things done. Although Wayne and Erin don’t look up anything then and there during each episode, they DO look things up before the next episode and they kick every show off with a list of corrections. (I’ll have Wayne on an episode of Succotash Chats soon to talk about his monumental 30-year-project, The Federman Chronicles, which features parts of his standup comedy act dating back 30 years.)
The Mild Adventures of Fred Stoller
I reviewed past guest and friend-of-Succotash Fred Stoller’s new podcast, The Mild Adventures of Fred Stoller, back when it debuted in July. We’d had Fred as a guest way, way back in Epi15, when doing his own podcast wasn’t even a twinkle in his mouth. We also clipped that episode I reviewed, with guest Robert Forester, but our Associate Producer Tyson Saner thought it was time for a rematch. The clip captures part of the opening to the show, which is part of a phone conversation of Fred trying explain the concept of a podcast to his mother. Also in this clip, he’s joined by sometimes-co-host Amber Tozer, and they discuss comedy and dating with guest Darren Carter and Nikki Sullivan.
The Hooray Show
The hosts of The Hooray Show, which we’ve not covered on this show before, are Horatio Sands and Chad Krueger. Horatio is, of course, from SNL. Krueger is a musician, perhaps best known as the lead singer and guitarist for Nickleback. In this clip, from their Season 2, Episode 6, they talk to guests Peter Murrieta and Jaime Moyer about the fire that swept through the Second City offices in Chicago earlier in September. The theater, I believe, was largely untouched, but the offices took quite a hit.
The Talking Podcast
From the UK comes The Talking Podcast, which is the most content-related blatant titling of a show I can remember. It features three brothers, Joseph Snelling, Oliver Snelling and George Trevor White, who, in the words of their homesite’s “Who Are We?”, “arrogantly assume that others would like to listen to them talking.” Tyson found this show and this clip, and I don’t know why the third brother’s last name, White, is not even close to that of his two brohams, which is Snelling. Here they talk about a family outing as boys on the Isle of Man. They also chat about Time as a concept. Heavy.
Taco Tuesday
Okay, I’ve mentioned on the show before that I really don’t care for pre-recorded promos. There’s nothing inherently wrong with them, but they can be easily played on any other podcast to help cross promote another podcast. Clips are much more illustrative of what a show really has going on. And the guys at the Taco Tuesday podcast — Uncle Dan, Adam Wolf, and Dave In The Cave —know that. We’ve clipped ‘em before. But this week, they sent along a promo – it’s got a head, a tail, some chit chat in-between, and music bed throughout the whole thing. Maddening. But because I love the Taco Tuesday guys (and because they got this promo here using our upload link at http://hightail.com/u/succotashshow), I’m going to let it slide.
Why Didn’t They Laugh?
Comedian Owen Benjamin, who is also an actor started a podcast where he tries to deconstruct his act. He plays portions of his performances and attempts to figure out what it was that kept an audience from laughing at the material. He’s almost 40 epis into Why Didn’t They Laugh? But our associate producer has clipped the very first episode, which features a recording of Owen’s father recounting a favorite joke. Tyson thinks the senior Benjamin sounds an awful lot like the late Spaulding Gray.
The Something Something Experience
We slipped this clip of The Something Something Experience onto the end of my interview with Michael John Simpson. It features he and his "co-caster", Kitty Brown, and their visit with comedian Ron Swallow. It seems Swallow has backed off performing fulltime, and their discussion gets into the challenge of making ends meet offstage, working as a freelancer in various industries.
Thanks for stuffing your ears full of Succotash Clips (with a little bit o’ chat). If you’d like to do a little something-something to pay us back for all this free chuckle n’ jivin’, we would adore your ratings and reviews up on iTunes, your thumbs-ups and reviews on Stitcher, a heart on SoundCloud, a Like on Facebook, a click on our Donate button or Amazon banner at http://SuccotashShow.com — any or all of those options will make us all very happy around Studio P and some of them will even get you mentioned on an upcoming episode of our show!
Until next time, thanks very much for passing the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon
Yes, it's still Marc Hershon and I'm still at the 4th Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival. Taking up space in the SquareSpace Podcast Lab and interviewing comedians, podcasters, and comedian-podcasters as they breeze through the doorway.
I'm releasing each interview as its own "minisode", and this is the sixth in the lineup, which is why it is Episode 116F. And my guest this time around was our guest on a full episode of Succotash back in Epi109 in May: Greg Proops. At this festival, he's guesting on Jackie Kashian's The Dork Forest, performing his own show, and guesting on Dinner Party Download.
Known for his tenure on the various incarnations of Whose Line Is It Anyway on TV, Greg is the host of The Smartest Man In The World and the Greg Proops Film Club. He's also recently released his first book, The Smartest Book In The World. And now he's on a jagged world journey — hopping, skipping, and jumping to different countries around the world to promote the book, mostly by doing his podcast in the same locales as well.
Greg and I revisit some of the topics we hit on back in May when he was on the show: The challenges of doing improv as a guest performer, keeping an act fresh, staying sane on the road, and more.
I'm posting this on Sunday, the last day of the @LAPodfest. I'm not sure who else might sweep through the portals of the Lab, but I'll grab who I can and bring those Succotash Chats to you.
Thanks for passing the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon
Guess what? It's me, Marc Hershon, once again, your host and floor walker for Epi116E of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. And I'm still camped out in the SquareSpace Podcast Lab at the 4th Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival.
This is the fifth in a lineup of Succotash Chats minisodes, and for those of you curious about the mindset behind both the @LAPodfest and Ear Buds, The Podcast Documentary, I leapt at the chance to interview Chris Mancini - heavily involved in both of those endeavors.
Chris is co-host of the well-respected Comedy Film Nerds podcast along with Graham Elwood, and the duo is also the brains and muscle behind Ear Buds. Plus they are one-half of the quartet that has pulled the Los Angeles Podcast Festival together the past four years, teamed with Dave Anthony and Andy Woods.
We talk about the movie, the festival, and what other projects Chris has simmering on the back, middle and front burners of a mind that never seems to be at rest.
I hope you're enjoying our lineup of interviews from the Podfest - there's more on the way later today, so check back frequently for updates.
Thanks for passing the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon
Yes, once again from the 4th Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival, it's me. Marc Hershon, your host and flamenco dancer for Epi116D of Succotash,
the Comedy Podcast Podcast. The fourth interview I did is from yesterday (Saturday), and I caught up with Jeremy and Stacy, two-thirds of the crew from the Ear Goggles podcast.
If you haven't heard of Ear Goggles, I don't think they'd blame you…yet. That's because for the past ten years, the two of them (along with Jeremy's half-brother Aaron) have been sailing under the Sibling Rivalry banner. I've mentioned and clipped them as such in past Succotash episodes, and we discuss why someone with a decade-long investment in a show title would decide to change now.
We cover a number of other topics as well in the course of our 20-minute chat, including the relationships between the podcast and its audience, Jeremy revealing personal things to strangers, and explore the question, "Should the cast of a comedy podcast consider themselves to be comedians?"
Keep on checking in on
our stream this weekend, as I continue to upload interviews as soon as I
can clean up the audio as best I can and drop them online! (And I
appreciate you telling your friends and passing the SuccotashI)
— Marc Hershon
Yes, once again, it is I. Marc Hershon. Host and dresser for Epi116C of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. This is the third of the interviews I've had during the course of this year's Los Angeles Podcast Festival, and this time I'm talking with Shawn Marek, a producer on podcasts that find their home on the Sideshow Network.
Shawn and I have known each other before there was a Sideshow Network, back when he was producing PodCRASH with Chris Gore, past guest on our Epi42 and friend of the show. And, although I knew he'd battled and survived a fight against Hodkin's Lymphoma, I didn't realize that his is one of the storylines that weaves their way through EarBuds: The Podcast Documentary, which had a preliminary screening last night at the Podfest.
We talk about both his illness and his appearance in the movie as part of our chat. For those podcasters out there, curious about podcast networks and how to possibly approach them with an interest to joining their lineup, we go there as well. We also talk about the podcast that he and his wife, Jen Stansfield-Marek, co-host, Worst Collection Ever, a comic book podcast about comics books that most people don't seem to care that much about.
With his extensive experience on the other side of the podcast mic, Shawn's got a great perspective on the industry — both as an entertainment medium and as a viable source of income.
Keep on checking in on our stream this weekend, as I continue to upload interviews as soon as I can clean up the audio as best I can and drop them online! (And I appreciate you telling your friends and passing the SuccotashI)
— Marc Hershon
Yes, it's me, Marc Hershon. Your host and talent wrangler for Epi116B of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast, and I'm still hanging out in the SquareSpace Podcast Lab at the 4th Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival. Happy to report that, after several years of my half-assed attempts to get Jackie Kashian, the host of The Dork Forest, on the show…it's finally happened.
We didn't have a whole lot of time, and the noise level in the Podcast Lab is a little off the charts while Jackie dropped by. But you take what you can get and I was glad that Jackie and I finally got the chance to chat while miked.
We talk about, after 250+ episodes, how does Jackie keep finding so many flavors of dork out in the world. We also chatted a lot about some tech stuff, like the difficulty of cleaning up audio files. And the virtues and pitfalls of improv. I also shamelessly pitched her on bringing me on her show as a guest. I figured I had to take my shot…
Give a listen, tell your friends, and thanks for passing the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon
