Succotash Chats Epi141: Slummin' with My Dad Wrote A Porno

It is I, Marc Hershon, your host and public defender for Epi141 of Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast. And our Special Guests this time around are Jamie Morton, James Cooper, and Alice Levine, the cast behind the immensely popular soundcast called My Dad Wrote A Porno.

I don’t think I’ve had an interview on this show that I haven’t enjoyed doing, but I must say that chatting with these guys was a lot of fun. Jamie, whose dad is the one who actually DID write the pornographic novel in question, Belinda Blinked, along with sharpshooters James and Alice were kind enough to set aside part of a Sunday evening in England recently to accommodate me and the time change between London and San Francisco.

For those of you who perhaps haven’t heard My Dad Wrote A Porno, I feature a clip from Epi5 of their show to give you a taste of what the hoopla is all about. It's a simple format, really. Jamie reads passages from the book that his dad – who goes by the name Rocky Flintstone – wrote as Jamie and Alice take turns with their running critique.

The show is now well into the second season and, appropriately enough, focuses on Rocky’s sequel to Belinda Blinked. As you’ll hear in our interview, Jamie was running a little late but James, Alice and I decided to start without him.

OTHER BUSINESS

As if that interview wasn't enough, we've got a double dose of our Burst O' Durst segment featuring our resident political comedian and social commentator Will Durst, plus TWO bonus interviews — a couple of short chats I had at the recent Los Angeles Podcast Festival. The first features Kurt Long and Joey Bragg from The Dudes of Future/Past soundcast, while the second is with George Grimwood, purveyor of the Podnose network from England.

Also, this episode is brought to you by Henderson's HalloPants, just in time for Halloween.

SOUNDCAST VS PODCAST

Our grassroots movement to change the term “podcast” to “soundcast” is being embraced by some, dissed by others. Abner Serd of the Tall Tales & Shaggy Dogs show has changed all of the references on his website to “soundcast”, and the ThunderTaco show is also officially a soundcast. I see there’s also the Salvation Army Soundcast.

On the other hand, I heard via Twitter from the Wheelbarrow Full Of Dicks show and also Chris Lanuti from the Broadcast Basement show that they don’t support the change. Chris says he thinks the name sounds “silly”, which I just don’t get, really. Podcast sounds less silly than soundcast?

That’s okay, course. I think it’s fair to say that I’m a little disappointed that a couple of shows we’ve often mentioned and supported can’t throw in with us on the “soundcast crusade”, but that’s their prerogative. We still love you guys. Not to mention we still can refer to your shows as a soundcast here on Succotash.

LAST WORDS

Please take a few moments to rate and review Succotash on iTunes, if you’d be so very kind. You can also help us out to defray the cost of producing and hosting this mess by clicking on the Donate button at our homesite, http://SuccotashShow.com, or by doing your online shopping by clicking on the Amazon banner at the top of that very same homepage, or purch some merch at our Succotashery, not surprisingly reachable through that same homesite.

Until our paths cross again, thanks for passing the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon
 

Succotash Clips Epi140: Snippin' All The Way

Yes, ‘tis I – Marc Hershon – your host and former-prizefighter-now-casino-greeter for Epi140 of Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast. And, as you heard in the opening introduction by our esteemed booth announcer Bill Heywatt, our curtain now match the carpet. That is to say, we’ve got “soundcast” replacing the outmoded “podcast” just about everywhere we can. Special thanks to our engineer/producer Joe Paulino for making that happen.

LA PODFEST

As I drop this ‘sode, I’m heading to the 5^th Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival! Exciting, indeed. I shall be in attendance all three days, more or less. Holding down space in the Podcast Lab to interview just as many folks as I can. And I will be moderating the panel on Journalism and Podcast on Sunday, Supetember 26^th, at 2 PM. We’ve got Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer, the host and producer of the Criminal soundcast and Jefferson Graham from USA Today. Should be a lively discussion.

Which you can listen in on! They’re going to be livestreaming the Podfest this year at http://LAPodfest.com and I can get you a special deal. That’s right. They want $25 from you BUT they’ve given me a discount code to give to Succotash listeners. So click on the link and enter HUFFINGTON as your code and they’re knock five bucks off the price. PLUS they’ll kick us a little chunk just because you used our code to get there! Here’s a link that takes you right in - https://podfest2016.eventbrite.com/?discount=HUFFINGTON

 

CLIPS

This is an installment of Succotash Clips and we have a whole rack of snippets for you. Some I picked, some were harvested by our associate producer Tyson Saner and at least one was uploaded directly from the soundcasters themselves. We’ll be hearing from The Answering Machine Podcast, the Big Question Podcast, Cave Crew Radio, Changes In Latitude, Dark Odyssey, Droids Canada, Ear Goggles, Improv Nerd, My 

Favorite Murder, No Such Thing As A Fish and The Unwritable Rant.

OTHER STUFF

We’ve also got a double dose of our Burst O’ Durst, courtesy of our friend, political comic, and social commentator Will Durst. In celebration of Fall, there’s a song from our friend Abner Serd all about apples.

THE CLIPS

Improv Nerd

I decided to do some double duty this episode and clips the same shows that I reviewed this past week for Splitsider.com and the Huffington Post. First up is Improv Nerd with Jimmy Carrane, a great improvisor and teacher from the Chicago area. He interviews some tremendous improv talent on his podcast and just this last week he dropped an episode interviewing always funny and jst slightly off TJ Miller. In this snippet he talks about creating his character of Erlich Backman on the HBO series, Silicon Valley.

Cave Crew Radio

We get a lot of Twitter retweet love from Choo Choo Stu from Cave Creek Radio, the internet radio show and soundcast, so high time we sliced off a hunk, thanks to Tyson. In addition to Stu from London, there’s Sir Big B, outta New York, and Mr. Wednesday Night from Ontario, Canada. The clip we have is from Cave Crew Radio’s highest rated episode on iTunes, Epi6, entitled “Smells like Urine Sushi”, and it’s a section when the hosts and guest on the show chat with the woman who inspired the meme “McScuse Me”.

Ear Goggles

Last episode I mentioned in the Tweetsack segment that I got a an upload from the gang at the defunct Ear Goggles soundcast. Well, guess what? They are defunct no longer — Jeremy Grater, Aaron Ristrow, and Stacy Black are back! Jeremy said they just couldn’t stay away and are recording 12 weeks of episodes, then they’ll take a break, do another 12 in the Spring, and so forth. The clip they sent us was from a special drop they did this summer to announce their return.

My Favorite Murder

For Splitsider.com’s This Week In Comedy Podcasts column I recently reviewed the soundcast which is at the top of the iTunes Comedy chart: My Favorite Murder, with comedians Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. If you like your murder flashbacks delivered with a healthy dose of humor and a side of squeamishness, you have coem to the right place. The hosts do their homework and delve into cases that are sometimes fairly recent and sometimes back in the dusty archives. Most recently they looked at the unfortunately murder of a college law student named Jane Mixer and her death at the hands of supposedly a serial killer who was dubbed the Co-Ed Killer. Turns out that, years later, DNA pointed the musty finger of justice at another joker who was incarcerated for the crime. Here’s a sample of Karen and Georgia’s witty back-and-forth…

Changes In Latitudes: A Transgender Experience

Ever since Succotash began about five and half years ago, one of our staunchest supporters and loyal listeners has been Charley Miller, who said he was partly inspired to start his Random Variety Show soundcast. A lot has changed in five years. Charley now goes by the name Charley Sabrina Miller and describes herself as a 40-something transgenderqueer fem-person, and hosts a soundcast called Changes in Latitude: A Transgender Experience. It’s Charley’s stream-of-consciousness journey that she takes us on through life, self-discovery, relationships and beyond.

Doctor Who Dark Odyssey

I have to confess to being a little mixed up about a clip I played in the last Succotash Clips show. It was from a show called Doctor Who Dark Journey. THAT was actually a serious take or homage to Doctor Who — sort of audio fan fiction, I think. The same folks responsible for that also put out their own spoof called Doctor Who Dark Odyssey, which stars Atweh Atweh, Paul Thomas Manz, Jason Gray, Merrin Lalonde and which is – according to the email I got with their direct upload to us — “Dark Odyssey is a take on Doctor Who as if it were produced for audio in America with basically everything wrong about it! Our American Doctor shoots, swears and shags!” So what we have is a clip from a parody of a ripoff of Doctor Who. I think. Still confused.

No Such Thing As A Fish

There’s a very popular BBC TV panel show in Britain called QI, which stands for Quite Interesting, hosted by Alan Davies and Stephen Fry, in which the point is to just be interesting. And entertaining. Interesting and entertaining. Now the researchers for the show — because it’s got loads of trivia in it — are four folks called the “QI Elves” because they look everything up — have gone and started a soundcast called No Such Thing As A Fish. Simple format – each of the elves, who as named Dan, James, Anna, and Andy, take turns kicking off a segment with a favorite fact for the week. The others then chime in with facts and tidbits related to that fact. The episode that I reviewed for Splitsider.com features them talking about something called “train jam”.

Answering Machine Podcast

Tyson found us a really interesting soundcast I hadn’t heard before. It’s called the Answering Machine Podcast, and its tells a story all based on a series of answering machine messages left for a woman named Lila Rose. Created by Sara Polton, who voices Lila, there’s a big cast of people who leave the messages.

The Unwritable Rant

The last of my review podcasts from last week was featured in Huffington Post Entertainment. It’s The Unwritable Rant from Juliette Miranda, who is a writer and an essayist — kinda the same thing, right? — and she’s clearly a monologist as well. We’ve certainly had some terrific shows from dudes who can riff all by themselves, like Bill Burr and Greg Proops. But there haven’t been a lot of soundcasts like that from women. So give a listen to Juliette…

Droids Canada

The gang from a show called Droids Canada got a clip to us through our direct upload link, at http://hightail.com/u/Succotash. About the show they say, “Based out of the Niagara Region in Canada this geeky pop culture show features blunt, comedic and outrageous behavior that occurs on every episode! Hosts Mr. J, AJ (and other rotating hosts Gabbypool, Dr. Stevil, DanMo and DJ Johnny Rock) cover current hot TV shows, comic book movie reviews, fan made things, interviews and any geek other related topic they can get their hands on.” This clip features guest James O’Barr, creator of The Crow.

Big Question 

Are you happy? That’s the Big Question that gets kicked around in Epi49 of the English soundcast Big Question. Hosts are Pete, Maria, Gary, Kay and Rocchi, plus they often have guests. Tyson, who snipped this clip, didn’t tell me if there were guests so I guess that’s MY big question. Let’s just listen…

SOUNDCAST OR DIE

To celebrate the kickoff of our grassroots campaign to change the term “podcast” to “soundcast” in as many places as we can, feel free to drop by the Succotashery via our homesite, http://SuccotashShow.com, and pick up some merch emblazoned with our name, Succotash, and the magic words, “The Comedy Soundcast Soundcast” directly beneath it. It’s on shirts, hats, coffee mugs and more.

That's all for now - how to see you at the LA Podfest this weekend or at least know that you're out there listening!

— Marc Hershon
 

Succotash Chats Epi139: Findin' Davy Rothbart

Yes, it’s me – Marc Hershon – your host and found object for Epi139 of Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast. This is an installment of Succotash Chats, where we focus on talking with a soundcaster, or a comedian, or a comedian/soundcaster, or – in this case – a magazine publisher/editor/writer/soundcaster.

Speaking of found objects, our guest is Davy Rothbart, the creator of Found magazine and, as of a couple of months ago, the Found soundcast as well. (You may have noticed that I’ve been using the “soundcast” word a lot already. Our grass roots campaign to shift from using podcast to soundcast is slowly taking off — you’ll even hear our guest Davy Rothbart mention that he’ll back our play and start using it.)

Davy is a really interesting guy and I enjoyed talking with him and getting the backstory on how he decided to start the magazine and how it's opened up his life by getting all of these odd little notes and other found bits of flotsam that people send him. He also shares a few of his favorite "foundities" with us during the course of our chat.

ALSO THIS EPISODE

We have a double shot of our Burst O' Durst segment, courtesy of political comic and social commentator Will Durst. During the Tweetsack segment I play a clip from the 100th epi of Drew Michael's I Might Be Wrong soundcast, only because his PR folks neglected to send me a free copy of his comedy album that they wanted me to plug. And we have a commercial from our sponsor Henderson's Pants for their ever-popular Drifter Chinos.

LIVE APPEARANCES

There are just a few days left before my live appearance with the Spaghetti Jam 40th Year Reunion Improv Comedy Show. Tickets are going fast but there are still some left, so if you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area on Sunday, September 11th – 9/11, that’s right — we’re at the Throckmorton Theatre in downtown Mill Valley. Such a GREAT lineup of performers that are turning out for this - people who really lit the fuse for what we know as improvisational comedy today: Terry McGovern, Gil Christner, Diane Amos, Debi Durst, Michael Bossier, Denis Egan, Robin Eurich, Andy Goldberg, Rodney Sheriff, John Elk, Chris Pray, Jim Cranna, John Bates, Hennen Chambers, and Andrejs Gulbis. Jump over to http://ThrockmortonTheatre.org for the showtime, tickets and other details.

And then later in the month – September 23-25 – I’ll be at the 5th Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival. In addition to hosting the Journalism and Podcasting panel on Sunday afternoon at 2 PM, I’ll be set up in the Podcast Lab the rest of the time with my equipment doing interviews so stop on by and let’s chat! I’ve already got a couple of folks set up to drop by: Adam Spiegelman from the Proudly Resents soundcast and Chris Gore from the PodCRASH! show and Film Threat Magazine, which is in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign to go back into publication.

A LITTLE HELP?

If you want to help keep Succotash going strong, please visit our homesite at http://SuccotashShow.com, where you can click on our Donate button, shop at Amazon.com by using the banner at the top of the page, or grab some merch at the Succotashery. You’ll also find a link to the homesite for the Laughable app there, where you can learn more about this great new way to find, download, stream and follow your favorite and soon-to-be favorite comedy podcasts.

We won't do anything to stop you going to iTunes and both rating and reviewing Succotash, which helps more people to find the show. And speaking of finding the show, Succotash is now available on I Heart Radio, so check us out there, too!

Until next time, thanks for passing the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon
 

Succotash Clips Epi138: Cruisin' Thru The Clippage

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

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

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

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

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

LIVE APPEARANCES!

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE CLIPS!

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

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


Proudly Resents 

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

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

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

Spirits

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

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

Doctor Who: Dark Journey

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

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

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

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

SUCCOTASH CAN USE YOUR HELP!

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

Thanks for passing the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon 

 

Succotash Chats Epi137: Grabbin' Dinner with Matt Knudsen

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

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

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

ALSO THIS EPISODE

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

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

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

PODCAST VS SOUNDCAST

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

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

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

More on the soundcast situation as it unfolds.

Until next time, thanks for passing the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon

Succotash Clips Epi136: Clippin' Like There's No Tomorrow

Can it be? Yes! It’s me! Marc Hershon, your host and SPF30 sunscreen for Epi136 of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. We’re back once again with a Succotash Clips episode, with an installment jam-packed with fresh clippage.

A couple of things before we get into the meat of this show…

NOT CLIPS

First of all, I’m thinking of starting a campaign to change the generic name of “podcast” to “soundcast”. There are three trademarks in the US for soundcast but two of them are for audio equipment and the third is for a teleconferencing service. So if we all start using soundcast now to describe the podcast experience, there’s a good chance we can keep it in the public domain. (We’ve talked on the show before about how the podcast name was coined around the iPod from Apple, a device that is no longer even produced. And it will do away with the even more awkward “video podcast” which isn’t really even a thing – the video folks can just have videocasts if they want that for a name.)

Secondly, it looks like I’ll be participating in an upcoming celebration of the 40th anniversary of Spaghetti Jam in San Francisco. Spaghetti Jam was an early improv group/pickup game where pretty much any of the San Francisco-based improvisers at the time could drop in, including folks like Robin Williams, Jim Crenna, Lorenzo Matawaran, Michael Bossier, John Elk, Debi Durst, and a whole bunch of others, including yours truly. Well, we’re getting what’s left of the Jam back together for one night. On Sunday, September 11th, we’ll be at the Eureka Theatre in San Francisco. For more info, Check out the Spaghetti Jam page on Facebook. 

And finally, I’m also beginning to get prepared for this year’s 5th Annual Los Angeles Podcast Festival. Last episode I had a brief interview with Chris Mancini, co-host of the Comedy Film Nerds podcast and co-organizer of the LA Podfast. And in that talk we mentioned that I will be on-hand to moderate the Podcast And Journalism panel, which is going to be great fun. It’s going to be on at 2 PM on Sunday, and the panelists include Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer from the Criminal podcast and Jefferson Graham of USA Today.

All right, that’s about me. Now let’s get to the good stuff.

For Succotash Clips this time around, we’ve for snippets from Big Question, Comedy Film Nerds, Fake The Nation, Here We Are, Monday Morning Podcast, Psycho Pshow, WTF and the most recent entrant into the Podcast Graveyard to date — the Taco Tuesday Podcast, our buddies in Killeen, Texas, who decided to shut it down just this week with their 100th episode.

Add to that a double dose of our Burst O’ Durst segment with political comedian and social commentator Will Durst, whose been all over the Republicant and Democrap Conventions the past couple of weeks, a brand new spot from Henderson’s Pants and we will toss in a little closing ditty from friend-of-Succotash Abner Serd.

CLIPS

WTF
I’m reviewing the episode out this week of WTF with Marc Maron, who has Jane Lynch in the garage as his guest. I think she’s hilarious and she also seems pretty level-headed and decent as a person. In this sample from the show, she’s talking about hoW she first met director and comic/actor, Christopher Guest, then later ended up in his Best In Show movie.

Big Question
Our next clip comes from the Big Question podcast and was submitted directly to us through our direct upload link. The note that accompanied it tells us a bit about the show and goes a little something like this: “Saw your requests for submissions on Twitter and figured that we’d throw our collective hats in the ring. The Big Question podcast has been in operation for slightly over a year and brings a weekly dose of no holds barred comedy and discussion. The four regular hosts are joined by a ever-changing collection of guests where we discuss a mass of topics from having sex with David Cameron for money (epi 2) to flatmates cleanliness problems (epi 33) to the inner workings of gay culture with our regularly occurring friend Rocchi." 

Comedy Film Nerds
The other chief source for our clips here on Succotash Clips is our noble Associate Producer Tyson Saner. From his lair in an undisclosed location somewhere where in the northern reaches of California, Tyson is constantly slicing and dicing delectable chunks of podcast goodness. We have several he’s cooked up this week and the first is from the aforementioned Comedy Film Nerds podcast, hosted by Chris Mancini and Graham Elwood. It's from from epi317 back in April, and features guest Geoff Tate.

Monday Morning Podcast
Another show I reviewed for Splitsider this week was the Monday Morning Podcast with Bill Burr. What a funny guy Burr is. And I admire his ability to just hold a mic and freeball his way through an hour without a co-host, a sidekick, or any other sort of production elements. I mean, he can’t read a spot worth a damn but, other than that, he’s on a level that includes Greg Proops and maybe Greg Fitzsimmons back when he occasionally didn’t have a guest. Get up to Splitsider.com if you want to read my review and here’s a snippet from the episode I reviewed, where Bill’s talking about Rudy Guilliani and cops.

Psycho Pshow
Tyson sliced us off a hunk of the Psycho Pshow – both of those words start with “P”, by the way, hence their tagline, “The World’s Worst Named Podcast – which is hosted by VJ, Chaidez and Toly. (No idea if I’m pronouncing those names right, by the way. Except maybe VJ because, really, how can you screw up initials?) I don't even try to describe the conversation in this 5-minute clip. I think they maybe were driving or walking somewhere while they were recording it. I can’t even tell.

Fake The Nation
There’s a new US comedy panel show that revolves around politics and current events. It’s called Fake The Nation and is hosted by Negin Farsad. Every episode she has a couple of comedically-inclined guests to help her comb through the nit and the grit of American and international politics. I mentioned Episode 3 this past week on Splitsider, when the talk was mostly about the political conventions and her guests were Dean Obeidallah and Nato Green.

Here We Are
Comedians are just curiosity seekers like the rest of us. I mean, with podcast such as Professor Blastoff (may it rest in peace), The Infinite Monkey Cage, Talk Nerdy and many others, the hosts are often comics just looking for answers. Tyson clipped us off some of the Here We Are show, hosted by comedian Shane Mauss. And in his Epi77, Shane talks up music and psychology with guest Daniel Levitin, who is a cognitive psychologist, neuroscientist, best-selling author, musician and record producer.

Taco Tuesday
This past week saw some friends-of-Succotash toss in the virtual towel. Podcast Dan, Adam Wolf and Dave In The Cave over at the Taco Tuesday podcast hung up their mikes. They managed to hang in for their centennial, Epi100, but some siutations with their physical studio space as well as what they perceived as low listenership, finally decided them on closing up shop. Normally we wait until a show’s been in the ground for a year or more before we feature it in the Podcast Graveyard, and I have a feeling these guys will be back in one configuration or another. But for now, we feature — literally — the last few minutes of the podcast that was Taco Tuesday.

Tall Tales & Shaggy Dogs (The May Bee Song)
So I got a note from our favorite acapella song stylist, Abner Serd, host of the Tall Tales & Shaggy Dogs podcast. Abner says, “Hi Marc - A few months ago, I tagged you in a song called 'Reflections on a Snowflake,' while acknowledging that it didn't pack as much humor as some of the others. Same goes for this one - it's all yours if you decide to use it, but I understand if it doesn't quite fit. Here is my latest little ditty, called The May Bee Song.”

 
In closing, I did something this week that I don't think I've done since Succotash kicked off over 5 years ago, and that is take a long, hard look at our download numbers.

Guess what? They suck!

I mean, they're not horrible but they're not the kind of numbers that advertisers drool over. So if I can infringe on your delicate sensibilities to PLEASE get up to iTunes in good haste and give Succotash a 5-star rating and a few sentences of a glowing reviews, I will promise to redouble my efforts to churn out this show on a regular, weekly basis. But it's going to take a team to pull this off, otherwise we might just have to go the way of our friends at Taco Tuesday, bust a gum machine, and get the hell out of here...

— Marc Hershon