Comedy Podcasts: your suggestions please

And he has such genuine wonder about life, its really infectious. Can't wait to check it out.

It's been said on this thread before, but I can't recommend Judge John Hodgman enough.

Who Charted is sort of charming, though unnecessary.

Ive been loving Greg Proops' The Smartest Man in the World but I can see how it would be annoying as fuck if its not your thing..

BTW, I gave Marc Maron $8.99 today for a premium 1-yr subscription to his podcast. It's the most I could give him, and he's so good at it, and so honest, he truly deserves my money. The way he interviews people makes Terri Gross look like a marionette.

And I disagree with people who don't want to listen to his personal rants. They're what give the whole exercise context, and they're not boring.

^^^ THIS

kenan otfm

wtf deserves some kind of award if only for letting louis c.k. tell his trumpet story

That trumpet story was A+

Mencia Part II is balls on the table all the way through, and it's SOOO obvious whose balls are bigger. Maron actually laughs right in the face of a pissed-off little dude who he knows has no morals and lies as a daily habit.

It's also, I should add, a great lesson in how you can not like someone and still respect that they're a person. It's advanced D&D, it really is.

Thanks for the suggestions people. Just subscribed to the Tobolowsky and Hodgman podcasts and, after putting it off for way too long, diving into the Best Show world.

dont forget Uhh Yeah Dude.

Listened to the Tobolowsky Files episode "The Stranger" this morning. Wow. The man is an amazing storyteller.

i've come around to the intros/rants on maron's podcast

I still skip them usually. Doesn't really impact my enjoyment of the show.

Got mildly annoyed last night after downloading the WTF iPhone app, thinking I was getting access to the old episodes, only to find I need to upgrade to Premium to get those. But it was only 99 cents and I'm not going to begrudge Maron for trying to make a little dough off the show.

My mother-in-law was high school debate club partners with Tobolowsky.

lol @ Maron's mailbag on today's episode.

yeah that was pretty wow. Liked his reply too.

The Tompkins interview was pretty great! Cringed a little over the fact that Maron couldn't/wouldn't get past the 'you were fat back then' and 'wtf is it with your clothes'...but Maron is Maron, he wouldn't be who he is if he didn't make you facepalm every now and again. Great conversation though. Looking forward to Monday, with the Kinnison guy. Sounds like an eyeopener.

The Tompkins thing was my favorite type of WTF interview, where they get into the real guts of the art of standup. (Also, it was nice to hear Paul talk more about his mom...he'd gone into some of—her death/funeral—on Freak Wharf, but I feel like we got a rounder idea of what his family is actually like today.)

agree, this ep was my fav in a while

Did you see his Comedy Central standup special last year (October/Novemberish)? -- he talked all about his Mom during that one and it was SO good.

But yeah, I love it when they get into the mechanics of how they do crowd work, how they manage their material on stage, the choices they make, even the travelling...good stuff.

i think the sound of young america guy may have changed his atrocious opening theme song due to negative feedback -- can the same thing happen with marc maron's unnecessarily aggro morning DJ cut-up intro?
also the slate podcast has this public-access public-domain sounding intro song that sounds like some allergy medication commercial. ugh!

I like this intro 10000 times more than his original intro.

there was a worse one?!
how did it go?
if you haven't heard the original sound of young america song it went like this:
rrraadio sweeetheart on the air waaaves / it's the sound ovvv youung amerrrica / maxxxximum fun / maximum fuuuuuuuuuuuun / maximum funnn

original one had like an AC/DC-esque bassline, and stupid Matthew that used to be his sidekick did this Drivetime Radio intro "From the basement of the cat ranch..." that seriously felt like it went for 20 minutes. It was HORRRIBLE

I love that he keeps his "Lock the gates!" from Almost Famous in there.

Yeah me too!

maybe I'll record a new theme song and send it to him

you totally should

i think it would need to sound pretty '90s for him to actually use it

The current one was created by a dude named John Montagna:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0IO9EIWJ4w

I actually don't mind the current theme, at least it's short. But it could be better.

ha, i like the kid's toy drums.

what's the deal with the "pow! i just shit my pants!" catchphrase? can't say i'm a big fan of that (although i do love just coffee, and it's roasted two blocks away from me).

I've really come around to WTF lately--been listening through the back files at work this week.

Also been listening to the "Thrilling Adventure Hour" (more like 26 minutes) a sketch comedy thing with various folks--F. Tompkins, Aubrey Plaza, etc.

One thing I have noticed is that listening to all these shows has really spoiled me about any other podcasts. The vast majority of folks on the comedy podcasts are all entertainment professionals, and, as such, actually know how to talk on mic, be funny, actually have a decent mic, etc etc etc

Flitting thru shows in the other categories of itunes and it's like, Jesus Christ, people, do you really need to do the whole thing with just your laptop microphone? none of you did college radio shows or anything previous to this where you had to hear yourself before? You do know you are making this for an audience, right?

^^^this. I feel the same way

That reminds me of this podcast I downloaded once about Chicago architecture and it turned out to pretty much be a guy riding the El and talking about what he saw out the window.

The Nerdist sometimes drives me a little crazy because they're so, ... chatty. Like all 3 of them will go off on some riff for 10 minutes between themselves before they get back to the guest.
I usually pick and choose who the guest is, as to whether I'll listen. and I love Hardwicke, I just..it's a personal thing with me, I kind of just hate listening to unstructured random chattiness. no knock against Nerdist itself though.

I guess my main issue with the Nerdist podcast is that I think all three of those guys are losers and not as funny as they think they are. But they have good guests and good conversations SOMETIMES.

You mean the guys doing a "Nerdist" podcast are kinda dorky and socially awkward?

Nope, I love nerds/dorks.

Sarcasm. I am a huge nerd.

What I meant is that their nerdiness is not why I think they're losers.

Nerdist for me is for more pleasant, or chatty, whereas something like CDR or Greg Fitzsimmons or Sklarbros are much more in the deliberately funny area.

Similarly, Maron's show can waver back & forth from pleasant to funny to compelling.

The recent episode of Best Show where Tom talks about his trip to LA was absolutely slaying me last night.

I lapsed on my Best Show listening, I need to pick it back up again... I do love it.

Just listened to this week's Best Show. Funny how that "Podcastin'" segment comes up the week after his Marc Maron interview. Hmm.

He was on multiple shows when he was in L.A., too.

Just now got around to hearing the Adam McKay episode of WTF (#119) and it was great. A little SNL talk, some Will Ferrell bits, and just a generally hour or so of attractive conversation. Unlike most of the WTF interviews, where it's very one-on-one, that one just kind of seemed like Marc and Adam were sitting around at a bar or something and you had a seat too and could jump in at any time.