Hello, chum! It is I, Marc Hershon, purveyor of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast and your ears are hearing Epi 89! (If you’re a subscriber to us via ConnectPal, you’re hearing this two days before anyone else!)

If you found Succotash through iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, our Facebook page or any other means, would you do us a favor? Go back and rate us if you can. Five stars on iTunes and a short review. A "thumbs up" on Stitcher. A heart on SoundCloud. Whatever you have access to, it costs you nothing and makes a world of difference to us.  Of course, if you want to contribute more substantially, I invite you to click the Donate button on our http://SuccotashShow.com homesite. 

Epi89 features my audio visit with podcaster, raconteur, singer, Ren Faire hanger-on, and bridge hanger-outer Hob The Troll. Although there are millions of trolls on the internet, Hob is the only actual troll-troll that I know of, and how luck are we that he hosts a regular Hobcast? He's had a number of wonderful guest on his show, some in character, some that just ARE characters, including Hal Lublin from The Thrilling Adventure Hour, who has been on our show a couple of times now.

SUCCOTASH ZIPPER PULLS ARE HERE!

Our newest tchotchke, the Succotash Zipper Pull, is here! This nifty thingy features a wee Succotash button clamped onto a little hook that affixes to pretty much any zipper you may have around on your jacket, duffel bag or gimp suit. If you're like one for FREE, you just need to email your snail mail address to zipper@SuccotashShow.com and we'll mail one out to you.

DOUBLE DOSE O' DURST

Once again, we've got two of our Burst O' Durst segments from cultural commentating comedian Will Durst this episode, as well as a "classic" Henderson's Pants commercial and a nifty set of clips – most of which were culled this week byour Associate Producer Tyson Saner.

THE 10 MOST ACTIVE SHOWS ON THE STITCHER TOP 100 COMEDY PODCAST LIST

The idea to focus on the 10 most ACTIVE shows on Stitcher's Top 100 Comedy Podcast List (rather than the Top 10 shows, which rarely ever change…) originally came to us from Ed Wallick, host of the Don't Quit Your Daycastpodcast. Just wanted to mention that because Ed let us know that he just bought some new podcasting equipment and used our Amazon banner at the top of the SuccotashShow.com website to get to that fabulous online everything store. You can, too, and Amazon will then kick us back a few quatloos to help us keep this operation going.

Here's this week's 10 Most Active…

AT                                                                                  MOVED

25 How Did this Get Made?                                                 -7
29 SModcast >> Jay & Silent Bob Get Old                            +15
31 Bertcast’s Podcast                                                         +6
43 This Week In Blackness Radio                                         +5
51 Sklarbro Country                                                            +7
55 The Brian Callen Show                                                   +10
58 What About Pod?                                                           -20
61 The Champs w/Neal Brennan & Moshe Kasher                 -10
65 The Cracked Podcast                                                     -37
79 Harmontown                                                                 -13

EXTRA PLUG

An Indiegogo campaign went up this week that's near and dear to the hearts of those privy to the San Francisco comedy scene. The Comedy Club focuses on Cobb's Comedy Club, from its inception in the Marina District through it's relocation and subsequent fire in the Cannery to its present location downtown. The comedians who have crossed the Cobb's stage range from the legendary to the obscure, and it's a story that's been lovingly told by filmmaker David Schendel. The film's almost all done except for final processing bits n' pieces. Check out the trailer and maybe even get your name in the credits at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-comedy-club. 

THE CLIPS

Chillpak Hollywood Hour
We usually feature a snippet from this show each week that has Chillpak Hollywood hosts Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness mentioned Succotash. But the boys have been busy and that means pre-recorded shows with guests and not much mention of us. (Although they did tag us at the very end of the most recent show - thanks, guys!) So I figured this was a good opportunity to play a straight-up clip of this excellent show. It's a story of Dean's early days in Hollywood, and who he found when he went star-spotting at the once-popular Sky Bar.

The Wolf Den
This show from the Earwolf Network, subtitled “The Business and Future of Podcasting”, is hosted by the network's co-founder Jeff Ulrich. It was just announced this past week that Mr. Ulrich is stepping down as CEO of Earwolf and also The Midroll, which is his podcast advertising agency. In an open letter to the Internet, he let everyone know that he’s taking a bit of a hiatus from showbiz, spending time with his family and figuring out his next steps in life. (I'm assuming The Wolf Den is either going away or maybe transitioning to a new host…) We feature a slice of Jeff’s chat with guest and fellow podcasting magnate Chris Hardwick from The Nerdist Network.

The Smartest Man In The WorldI just did a review of Greg Proops’ The Smartest Man in the World for Splitsider and Huffington Post. And I realized it’s been a while since I clipped that show, which is a great example of – as I say in the review – a Master of the Spew. Someone who can keep up a steady stream of entertaining solo monologue. There are podcasters like Bill Burr and Larry Miller and Marc Maron who are certainly Spew Masters but Greg is one of the only guys who really only does it in front of a live audience as opposed to in a studio or an apartment or whatever. He was recently over in Wales, at the literary Hay Festival in the town of Hay and I pulled a slice of him getting into a riff around one of Wales’ favorite sons…

Dining with Doug & Karen
Doug Benson is, perhaps, most famous for his Doug Loves Movies podcast but he’s funny at so much else, including his Benson Interruptions and his Getting Doug With High YouTube show. With all that pot smoking that DB does though, comes a powerful need to feed. I’m not sure if that was the inspiration for Dining with Doug and Karen, featuring Mr. Benson and Karen Anderson but, high or not, you'll enjoy them along with guest Greg Behrendt as they all eat “Belly Bombz Asian fusion wings".

Norm MacDonald Live
There have only been about 15 episodes of Norm MacDonald Live, with comedian Norm MacDonald and co-host Adam Eget, and it’s actually a VIDEOcast from The Video Podcast Network, which is probably why it wasn’t exactly on my radar until now. (The 'sodes are later released as audiocasts via iTunes.) We're featuring a clip from a recent outing in which Norm was lucky enough to corral comic great Carl Reiner on the show.

TANcast
The TANcast is a show I’ve seen tweets about but never listened to but then was inspired to when I saw some fun Photoshoppery by Tim Babb, one of the three hosts. He’s also a standup comedian, whereas his two buddies, Adam and Noah — T, A & N. TAN. TANcast, get it? — are not comics. But they were all roommates at one time and now, even though they are separated by distance, technology brings them together every week. This clip is from one of their regular features, TANLaughs, in which they read jokes sent in by their listeners. Sometimes really bad jokes.

There's Epi89 in a nutshell. Or a blog, rather. Hope you enjoy listening. If you do (or if you don't), or if you'd like to tell me about a comedy podcast worth clipping that we haven't featuring on Succotash yet, drop me a line at marc@SuccotashShow.com OR call into the Succotash Hotline at (818) 921-7212 (also uptuyu on Skype…) and leave a message that we'll feature on the show.

Pass the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon

Yes, it is I, Marc Hershon and, as your curator for Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast, I'd like to welcome you to Epi88.

Come on in, make yourself comfortable.

Help yourself to whatever’s in the fridge while I show you what we’ve got in store for you this episode…

First off, thanks to all the Succotashians who Liked and/or commented on the picture I posted on Facebook and Google+ last week of me holding my first place award for Editorial Cartoons from the California Newspaper Publishers Association! (I draw a weekly cartoon for the Half Moon Bay Review here in Northern California…)

Secondly, I don’t know if you bothered to listen in on our “halfisode” Epi87.5 last week, which was just me, rambling, on my way up Interstate 5 from Los Angeles. But this week it’s clips.

Clips, clips, clips.

Clips from comedy podcasts from around the world. Some I collected. Some were harvested by our ace associate producer Tyson Saner, and a few were sent in by comedy podcasters themselves.  (BTW, if YOU’RE a comedy podcaster or if you’re a listener who has a suggestion for a comedy podcast we should clip, just drop me a note at marc@SuccotashShow.com and I'll hunt it down!)

But it's not just clips this time out. We also have our usual features back in place this episode, including a double dose of our Burst O’ Durst segment with comedian Will Durst, the 10 Most Active Shows In The Stitcher Top 100 Comedy Podcast List, the TweetSack segment AND a brand new Henderson’s Pants commercial!

Handy Tip: You can find link to the homesites for the shows we feature on each episode by clicking on the title for each show in the blog from our website, at http://SuccotashShow.com

The 10 Most Active Show on Stitcher's Top 100 Comedy Podcast List

AT                                                                                MOVED
12. The Bugle                                                                +10
21. How Did This Get Made                                            -10
36. Jay & Silent Bob Get Old                                          - 8
39. This Week in Blackness Radio                                    +7
47. The Champs w/Neal Brennan & Moshe Kasher           +25
50. You Made It Weird w/Pete Holmes                            + 9
66. Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine       +16
68. Jim Florentine’s Metal Comedy Midgets                    + 8
81. Pointless: With Kevin Pereira                                   +50
91. The Artie Lang Show                                                 -7

Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast
This past week, for This Week In Comedy Podcasts for Splitsider.com AND for Huffington Post, I reviewed the premiere episode of Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast. It’s just Gilbert in his New York apartment, along with co-host Frank Santopadre, interviewing a different person for about an hour. Their first guest was Dick Cavett. Yeah, THE Dick Cavett. And it’s a good show – funny, touching, thoughtful, sophmoric at times and also occasionally a tad politically incorrect, which I think is great!

John Dredge’s "Nothing To Do With Anything Show"
I’ve featured the very funny John Dredge’s Nothing To Do With Anything Show before but figured, since he just concluded his 3rd season of the show, I’d play a little piece so you can see why you’d want to go binge-listen the six episodes that constitute the third series.

The Jockularity Show
I had a shout out from The Jockularity Show podcast a few weeks ago on the Tweeter, along with a request to check out their show, which is part of the Torn By Sports blog out of Utah. Some of you Succotashians may recall how I stumbled through the most recent Fantasy Football season run by Chris Lanuti at the Broadcast Basement podcast. Clearly, I am not a “sports guy” and the Jocularity Show is just a clearly a “sports show”. They do get into some funny stuff, which qualifies them for this show but for a non-jock, I had kind of a tough slog making it through a couple of pretty straight ahead interviews. But that’s entirely on me – if YOU enjoy sports, you’ll most likely be right there with hosts Rick Aaron and David Wilbur. In this clip, they’re joined by their producer Allen as they talk about “walkup music” – the tunage that the players were being introduced to during the recent NFL draft.

Geeks With Wives & Capes
Been hearing a lot about this podcast called Geeks with Wives & Capes, mainly because a couple of friends of Succotash have guested recently, namely Phil Leirness from Chillpak Hollywood Hour and Ethan Dettenmaier from Combat Radio. So I was glad to get this clip, harvested by our Associate Producer Tyson Saner, from Ethan’s visit with Josh, Matt & Joe.

The Crunch Time Show
In Epi87, I featured a clip of myself playing the Random 5 questions game on the Crunch Time Show podcast. I believe I mentioned that I would play a clip from the main part of the show at my next opportunity, which happens to be now. Here are hosts Wayne “Crunchy” Baggins and his wife, The Scully, talking about an embarrassing story around a cassette tape that haunts him to this day.

What A Pair of Trousers!
Back in Epi84 we featured a clip from The Angry Chimp Show. This week I got a note and a clip from Stu of that podcast, informing us that the Chimp is taking a bit of a break. In its place, sort of, comes a new show entitled What a Pair of Trousers!, featuring Stu and three pals who met back in high school: Ben, Matt, and Rich. Stu says it’s the perfect opportunity for four old friends to get together and talk rubbish.

Old Enough to Know Better
Tyson Saner has clipped us a slice of a podcast I’ve not heard of before called Old Enough To Know Better. Maybe the best way to sum up the gist of this show is to read their iTunes description: Perspective is everything and we're both seeking it and offering what we can. We're looking for some sanity and a way forward in the world, perhaps you can help? Sometimes digressive and silly, sometimes focused and serious, always honest and aiming to be more. Our taste features host Eden chatting up guests AJ – from the podcast Sup Dude, and Jason about the mechanics of stand-up comedy and storytelling on stage.

Like I’m An Idiot
Isn’t it great when a podcaster hits on a simple formula that works? The kind that makes other podcasters kicks themselves for not having thought of it before? Josh Cagan has done it with his Like I’m An Idiot podcast, in which he is The Idiot and he ask smart people – i.e. his guests – to explain things to him. In his Epi29, he wanted guest Erika Hall to help him understand “What the fuck is going on in San Francisco?”

Picnic Time Podcast
Associate Producer Tyson Saner picked this of the Picnic Time Podcast which, I guess, is related to but not the same as the Picnic Time Radio Morning Morning Show. One host, Adam, is on both, but Jesse is only on the podcast. I think. I’m confused. Anyway, Adam and Jesse talk in this clip about an interesting revelation, so to speak, that has come to life about the late Pastor Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church.

In wrapping up Epi88, just a reminder that we tweet @SuccotashShow on Twitter and you can also like us on Facebook. Remember that if you’re shopping Amazon, please come to http://SuccotashShow.com first and click on the Amazon banner at the top of the page. You end up in the same place but when you buy something, we get a little taste from Amazon.

We’ve got a some interviews coming up in the next few episodes so that’ll be fun. And we’re getting ever nearer to our big Epi100 End of Season One Extravaganza! In the meantime, if there’ s a comedy podcast out there that we haven’t covered yet, please drop me a line at marc@succotashshow.com and tell me about it.

And remember that you can get each episode of Succotash two days before anyone else by subscribing to us at https://www.connectpal.com/succotash.

Talk to you soon but, until I do, thanks for passing the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon