Feb 7, 2012
This epi is really a mixed bag. No interview this time around, but plenty o' clippage. Including two of the biggest big names in show biz, stuff from across the pond in the UK. And a song — more or less — from past guest and Friend of the Succotash Fred Stoller, all about a podcast interview gone wrong.
Are podcasts changing the way people relate with each other? The more of them I listen to, the more I believe that it may turn out to be doing so, slowly but surely. We've got a clip from one show where a host returns after a stay in a mental health facility and I talk a bit about how such a thing used to be something shameful, not to be discussed. The way the others on the show treat the situation takes a lot of the gravitas out of the proceedings. (You may heard about comedian Todd Glass and his recent visit to Marc Maron's WTF podcast, where he chose to reveal that he is not a heterosexual. Again, a fascinating (and brave) approach to breaking social convention wide open.)
As trumpeted in the headline for this epi, our booth announcer Bill Haywatt returns for a Boozin' With Bill segment. His featured drink, "Life & Death", takes so long to prepare that we end up playing a couple of clips before drinking this most recent concoction. Follow the directions and prepare the recipe at your own risk.
You can now get Succotash all over yourself by patronizing our webstore and grabbing some of our merch over at the Succotashery. If you don't want to help us to keep the show going that way, perhaps you'd consider giving our Donate button a click and shoot us some bucks. It's right on our site, on the right.
Here's a rundown of this epi's clips. Click their titles for links to their home sites or check iTunes or Stitcher Smart Radio for the episodes...
Here's The
Thing
Catch a few minutes of superstar actor Alec Baldwin,
slumming in podcastland and interviewing superstar executive
producer Lorne Michaels. Baldwin talks about his experience
of hosting Michael's baby, Saturday Night Live, and does he
say the writers raped him? You'll have to
listen...
Illusionoid
This show is fast becoming a favorite of mine — some shows I listen
to just for the clips, favorites I catch every week — and these
Toronto-based improvisors (Paul Bates, Lee Smart and Nug
Nahrgang) JUST took the coveted Globehead Improv Tournament
championship for 2012. In this clip, they are joined by Whose
Line Is It Anyway alum Colin Machrie.
The Last Podcaster
Standing
As mentioned above, this clip earmarks an interesting milestone in
comedy podcasting: A near-straight forward account with a regular
kind of guy revealing the depths of the difficulty of dealing with
everyday life. To the point where the guy — TK1 — checked
himself into a mental hospital. His sympathetic-yet-laughing
confederates on the show (Grant, Jason, Joe, Tom, and
Stephanie) make his re-entry as painless as four cut-ups
possibly can, one imagines.
Van Full Of Candy
The guys from VFOC are trying their hands (mouths?) at
livecasting (as opposed to podcasting) and I happened to be
privy to their "Episode Zero" test of the system over at Blog Talk
Radio. So I called in to see how it was going.
I Am Idiot
Over in London, three blokes (Howard, Keith and
Ben) are I Am Idiot.They shot this clip over to me
and most of the action deals with a little mind game they like to
call "Impossible Choices".
Self-Help
For Stoners
Author Robert "Chazz" Chute has turn the topic (and title)
of one of his books, Self-Help For Stoners, in a platform
(and title) for a podcast. Here we catch a blast from his Letters
section. (Wonder if he's going to turn another of his tomes into
podcast fodder? It's got a great title: Death & Mind Control
(For Fun And Profit).
Nick Creeps On
Peeps
There's a podcast for everything, as is proven by Nick
Gauss, host/stalker of NCOP. In this clip, he's joined by one
of his co-hosts from the other podcast he's involved with,
Divided by Zero. In each edition, Nick stakes out some
person to watch in a public place, then riffs on what they're doing
and what their lives must be like.
Burst O' Durst
Or, rather, BURSTS O' Durst. We've got a double header this week —
one in the first half, one in the second. Politicomic Will
Durst supplies us with straight unadulterated comic views of
first White House resident Barack Obama's State of the Union
address and then the GOP Soap Opera that IS the run-up to this
year's presidential election.
In addition to the clips, we've got promos from Chillpak Hollywood Hour, the UK's Badger's Briefcase, and The Thrilling Adventure Hour (with Superego). And, of course, a word from our perennial sponsor Henderson's Pants.
That's it. Fingers tired now. Go, friends, and pass the Succotash!
— Marc Hershon