Podcasts about random variety show

Yes, friend, it’s me, Marc Hershon, your host and freestanding lamppost for Epi149 of Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast. Just one more installment before we hit episode 150, which is likely to coincide with our 6th year of quality soundcasting. This is an episode of Succotash Clips, coming at you the way this show started way back when, by featuring a gaggle of comedy soundcast clips. This episode we're featuring clips from Changes In Latitude, Knight & Day, That's Deep Bro, Dumb People Town, The Anti Social Show, The Nerd Blitz, The Story Worthy Podcast, Good One, and the Just In TIme podcast…sort of. Also coming up this show we have a double dose of our Burst O' Durst, featuring political comedian and social commentator Will Durst. And the whole kit n' kaboodle is brought to you this episode by Henderson's Pressure Cooker Pants. REVIEW REVUE Normally I’m begging you to help us to spread the word with a 5-star rating and a short blurb about wonderful the show is and how it made you a better person. But we just got a couple of fresh ones in so I thought I’d give you a break and, instead, thank these folks and let you hear what they had to say, sort of as an example of how easy this process is. The first one is from our old friend Sabrina Miller, host of the Changes In Latitude soundcast. Back when Succotash started in 2011, she was Charley Miller with a show called The Random Variety Show, and he told me that listening to this show was one of the things that got him into becoming a soundcaster himself. Here’s what she had to say after plunking down 5 stars: “Marc, Joe, Kenny and Bill are unsung heroes in the podcast world. If you're not listing to this podcast, then just go home. One of the things I love about this show is that every episode has something familiar (Marc, Bill and Henderson’s Pants) and then has something different (all the comedy clips) I still love this show even after it reached 100 episodes! Keep up the great work Succotash!" We also received this short and sweet tribute from a fun comedy narrative story of a soundcast I’ve mentioned on Splitsider.com before but we’ve not yet featured here on the show called Knight & Day. The producer, Bill Franmeister, gave us 5 stars and wrote “Great podcast from top podders. Keep up the good work!" A UPCOMING LIVE APPEARANCE I’m producing and appearing in a live show on Saturday night, April 1st. It’s the April’s Fools Show at the 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley, California. It’s going to be stand-up, sketch, and improv comedy, along with some spoken word performance and even some fool-based music! We have a great lineup, with Geoff Bolt, Larry “Bubbles” Brown, Al Clethen, Debi Durst, Michael Meehan, Judy Nihei, Michael O’Brien, and Dan Spencer, along with Musical Director Dave Coldren. It all starts at 8 PM and tickets are $15-25 dollars, depending on whether you want reserved seats or not. For more info and details, click on over to http://ThrockmortonTheatre.org THE CLIPS Changes In LatitudesThis is a few minutes from last October, Epi108, which marked Sabrina Miller’s second year with the show. This clip is where Sabrina was talking about having gone back to start listening to her own show from the beginning… Knight & DayI’m not sure if this show by Bill Franmeister even has it’s own homesite. You can find it on iTunes and it links to SoundCloud. And I know its on the Laughable app. The first season is only six episodes, which just wrapped in February. I’m not sure if, or when, Knight & Day will be back. (But thanks for the review, guys!) That’s Deep BroChristina Pazsitsky. If her name is familiar, she’s a comedian and she’s also the wife of another comedian, Tom Segura, and together they host another soundcast called Your Mom’s House. This clip is from That’s Deep Bro Epi106, entitled “Why Do I Keep Doing Things I Hate?” To catch more of That’s Deep Bro, you can find Christina all over the place – the Laughable app, itunes, SoundCloud, GooglePlay and wherever fine soundcasts are streamed and/or downloaded. Dumb People TownThis is one of my favorite new soundcasts. I’ve already reviewed this thing a couple of times for both Splitsider and Huffington Post. It features Jason and Randy Sklar, comedians probably best known in Soundcastland for their Sklarbro Country show. And Daniel Van Kirk, who hosts his own show Hindsight and frequently appears on Doug Loves Movies as Mark Wahlberg. In Dumb People Town, they take one of the oldest tricks in the soundcasting book – reading news articles about assorted weirdos and the situtations they get into – and just riff mercilessly about and around them. Joining them in their 7th episode was Mad Men’s Jon Hamm, who was definitely up for this kind of monkey business. The Anti Social Show Now into their late teen episode, it's just high time we featured a clip from The Anti Social Show, co-hosted by our esteemed Associate Producer Tyson Saner and our Esteemed Listener Hunter Block. You can find The Anti Social Show episodes on SoundCloud. The Nerd BlitzHarvested by Tyson, we have a clip from The Nerd Blitz with Doom and Fitz. If you’re a REALLY regular listener of Succotash, you might remember Fitz as being one-half of the Jump To The End soundcast, which we featured back in Epi71 in 2013. You might remember it…I didn’t. But Tyson DID, which is one of the many reason we keep him around. Their tagline is “Real Nerds Talkin’ Real Nerdy Shit” and the real nerdy shit in this clip is from their Epi20, entitled: Turkey Baster 3-Way, where they discuss The Hobbit and the other Tolkien films while playing Battleship. The Story Worthy PodcastOne of my rules on Succotash is that we feature clips, we don’t play promos. Because any show can play another show’s promos. But we sample and listen and evaluate before we harvest our clips. (Unless you directly upload something to us at http://hightail.com/u/Succotash. Then we’ll pretty much play whatever — clip, promo, randoms note — you give us. And that holds true in this case for an old friend of the show, Christine Blackburn, co-host of the Story Worthy podcast, along with Hannis Phinney. Good One We’ve got a chunk from a new soundcast that’s only been out a few weeks called Good One, in which the host, Jesse David Fox, plays a joke or bit from a comedian, then has the comedian on to deconstruct the bit — where it came from, what it’s about, how it was developed, and why. A recent episode of Good One features Jesse’s visit with Weird Al Yankovic to talk about his song "Word Crimes", a parody of Robin Thicke’s 2013 “Blurred Lines”. In this clip they get into the weeds a bit about the intricacies of doing parody right. Beyond Yacht RockLet me ask you this: If you had an internet show called Yacht Rock and then wanted to expand on that premise, what might you call it. If you answer Beyond Yacht Rock, you’d be right. Subtitled Uncharted Journeys into Arbitrary Genres, it’s hosted by JD Ryznar, David B. Lyons, Hollywood Steve Huey, and Hunter Stair. This clip’s from Epi6 entitled “Divorcecore” from a little over a year ago. Just In TImeTyson discovered that a recent episode of the Just In Time soundcast thanked us for clipping them a few episodes ago. So I thought I’d play it here because I love playing clips from shows wehre they mention Succotash. A LITTLE HELP? If you’d like to help support our humble soundcast, it’s so easy. Get over to our homesite, at http://SuccotashShow.com and, from there, you can click on the Donate button, or use our Amazon banner to do your shopping, or even purch some merch from our Succotashery. I leave it all up to you. Every little bit of money we manage to scrounge up goes to help offset the production costs and maintenance of this show. Speaking of which, that's all she wrote when it comes to Succotash Clips, Epi149. It’s been a pleasure serving you. We hope to see you again and remember, always, to please pass the Succotash. Goodbye. — Marc Hershon

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 carpet now match the drapes. 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 5th 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 26th, 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 NerdI 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 RadioWe 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 GogglesLast 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 MurderFor 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 ExperienceEver 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 OdysseyI 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 FishThere’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 PodcastTyson 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 RantThe 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 CanadaThe 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 QuestionAre 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

It's been another couple of weeks since I last posted a new epi of Succotash, so I hope you didn't forget about us! We’ve got a bunch of podcast clips in store for you in this – Epi67 of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. I really appreciate you sticking around and downloading or streaming our show. The delay was kind of unavoidable – work has been crazy busy PLUS the computer I use for creating the episodes was damaged while I was on vacation. Fortunately (and coincidentally) past-and-future guest as well as friend-of-Succotash Dana Carvey wanted me to help him out with some writing on a project, so I bartered the job out in exchange for a spiffy new Mac to replace Fleegle, the official Succotash computer.  (In memory of the first one, I am also calling the replacement Fleegle. It's not sentimental, it's just that all my files transferred over to the new one and it would be a hassle just to change its name…) Honorary Associate Producer I want to give a big shout out to our friend and avid listener Tyson Saner, who recently has been clipping some comedy podcasts that HE enjoys listening to and then passing the clips along to Succotash. We got a bunch of them from Tyson this show so I think I’m going to make him this episode's honorary associate producer. (It's probably temporary mainly because I think Tyson is about THIS close to launching his own podcast – at which point he won’t have any spare time left to cut clips for our show!) Thank you, Tyson, I really appreciate it. Thanks, Charley! Another friend of the show, Charley Miller, featured an interview that he did with ME back in April on a recent episode of his Random Variety Show podcast. And it wasn’t just an interview – this is a real tribute to our show. He plays a couple of classic Henderson’s Pants spots, played a clip of us clipping RVSP, and he even plugged I Hate People!, the business book I co-wrote a few years ago (which is still available online!) On top of all that wonderfulness, Charley dipped into his 1-year-old son’s college fund and kicked a very generous donation in through our Donate Button on the SuccotashShow.com website. So get up to http://RandomVarietyShow.com or iTunes or Stitcher or the PodGods network and give Charley’s episodes a listen. (You should also do like Charley did and feel free to donate a little bit to help us keep this podcast going!) Those Great Succotash Recipes One of my favorite features of our show is fast becoming the succotash recipes that appear at the very tail end of the show. The original idea came from Jabs at the Dhead Factor and Boganwood podcasts and it was fun to play an actual recipe for succotash after every show – I just grabbed the audio off of YouTube video where people were cooking the stuff. But after doing that for about 6 months, the well was running try. So I’ve been reaching out to some of the more creative comedy podcasters out there and asking them to record recipes. So far we’ve had Chef Eddie Vedder from the Tiny Odd Conversations podcast and Chef Terry with a Cajun recipe from the Don’t Quit Your Daycast podcast. This week’s episode features a recipe provided by Davian Dent over at the Bitter Sound Podcast through his Bitter Sound Cooking Class and Chef Matt Bubbles. Chillpak Hollywood Hour Even though we’ve been down for a couple of weeks, it seems our friends Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness over at the Chillpak Hollywood Hour podcast have been swamped and, although they’ve been very good about putting out their Monday episodes, they’ve been from the set of a new movie they’re producing, directing and acting in called The Ladykillers. As a result, they haven’t been mentioning Succotash, which is fine, but those have been the clips I’ve been playing here – when they mention our show, see? I guess we’ll just call the past couple of weeks a wash. This Week In Comedy Podcasts My latest review on Splitsider.com, for This Week In Comedy Podcasts LAST week, was The Jimmy Shubert Show. Veteran comic and actor, Jimmy Shubert has been around a while but only 2 episodes into the world of podcasting. And I’m going to interview Shubert on the next epi of Succotash, so how about that? Boganwood Chronicles, Cont'd. This show also features Episode 6 of Boganwood, the podcast mini-series out of Australia. Just before that rolls, there's more from an interview I had over Skype with the series' creator, Jason McNamara. Double Dose O' Durst Our Burst O' Durst segments have been piling up so in Epi67 we're running two - one towards the beginning and one in its usual spot near the end of the show. The 10 Most Active Podcasts in The Stitcher Top 100 Comedy Podcasts Here are the shows on Stitcher that shown the most movement - up OR down in the past week. Simple. 22. TalkS Hit with Eddie Ifft +942. Professor Blastoff +1145. The Dana Gould Hour +6650. Girl On Guy with Aisha Tyler +1755. That American Life -1663. The Champs with Neal Brennan & Moshe Kasher -2566. The Black Guy Who Tips Podcast -1570. The David Feldman Show -1491. The Perfect 10 Podcast with Ralphie May & Lahna Turner +45100. Yoshi Didn’t Podcast -16 THE CLIPS The Dana Gould HourThe funny and dark, or maybe it’s the darkly funny Dana Gould is back. I thought I was offline for a bit but he’s got me beat by a month. He has a better excuse – and I’m not telling tales out of school because he mentions it right in the opening to The Dana Gould Show – he was going through a divorce. When I saw him early in the summer, it was just getting started but now most of the hysteria is done with and he getting back to finding the funnier things in life. In this clip Dana and two of this episode’s guests – April Richardson and past Succotash guest Matt Weinhold – chat it up about ghosts in the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, which seques quite naturally into a discussion about cocaine. What? The Perfect 10Anyone familiar with Ralphie May’s comedy know that he’s got strong opinions about things. He’s not afraid of expressing them onstage and he’s definitely not afraid to jump into them on his podcast which he co-hosts with his wife, comedian Lahna Turner. It’s called the Perfect 10 and this week it jumped up into the Top 100 on Stitcher at #91, having leaped up 45 places since last week. In this clip, we discover that Ralphie not only doesn’t like wine very much but HATES the movie Sideways, that is all about wine and wine tasting and screwing. This clip precedes a visit that Lahna then makes to take a tour of a winery and to learn a little something about viticulture.  The Bitter SoundThe Bitter Sound podcast out of the UK is often a sort of audio experiment. Host Davian Dent likes bending sound and structure in interesting and – often – disturbing ways. In the spirit of the BBC over there, Davian’s recently concluded his second season of six shows and we have a clip from that last show where a friend has bought him something to commemorate the occasion.  Call Chelsea PerettiHere is the first of the clips submitted by our buddy Tyson Saner. Tyson is not just an avid listener to podcasts but he’s a very supportive voice out there for a lot of shows – he’s constnatly retweeting stuff from not just Succotash but Chillpak Hollywood Hour, Combat Radio and others that he wants people to discover. I love this clip from Call Chelsea Peretti – a show we hadn’t gotten around to featuring yet – as Chelsea has guest Bill Burr on her podcast and you can tell they like mixing it up a bit. Action Science TheaterWe received a clip from Dan Bond, Brian Macken, and Dan Booth from their relatively new sketch-based podcast. Action Science Theatre is a monthly show. The description on their website reads: “Action Science Theatre is a podcast in the style of a radio play, that mixes action, science, comedy and silly voices to create a welcome distraction from real life for 20 minutes or so. It is unquestionably the finest free online audio drama you can get without trying any others.” There’s a little bit of a feel of The Thrilling Adventure Hour, Superego and Illusionoid to the show – at least in the clip we have, but that’s not a bad thing at all. BertcastWe played a clip from the Bertcast – hosted by comedian Bert Kreischer – when he first launched about a year and a half ago. Our honorary associate producer Tyson Saner lets us revisit the Mancave this week when Bert lures Marc Maron out of the WTF garage on The Bertcast to get real about marriage, kids, drinking, as well as hopes and dreams.  Mission Log: A Roddenberry Star Trek PodcastTyson Saner comes through again with Mission Log: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast. It’s a one-of-a-kind thingeroo that I’d never heard of but is pretty interesting, especially if you’re into The Trek. It features Ken Ray and John Campion delving into EVERY episode of EVERY Star Trek TV series, recounting the plotlines and then delving into the character motivations, plot wrinkles and everything in-between. There’s a sense of humor to it, for sure, but this is for the true ST aficionado.  One Dollar BeerOur next clip was sent in by Tommy Kay, one of the hosts of the One Dollar Beer podcast. Other hosts include Frost-T and Anthony Gunn. Tommy’s cover note says, "This is a snippet of our second episode entitled "Purple Lightsabers and White Women". It includes a clip from a segment where one of the hosts reveals some of his list of confessions and secrets that he never told anybody, along with reactions from the other hosts. Thank You." No, no - thank YOU, Tommy, for sending the clip in. Enjoy your first taste of One Dollar Beer… There it is, Epi67 of Succotash, all neatly wrapped up and ready to pass along to your friends! – Marc Hershon

This is the two-year-iversary month for Succotash! Two whole years. I didn't know it would last this long but then, I didn't know that it wouldn't last this long. If you've been listening the whole time I can't thank you enough. And if you've picked us up somewhere along the way, I thank you as well. Epi55 is not a big clip show - we've only got four snippets from comedy podcasts - but that's because the majority of the show is my interview with the poster boy for alt comedy Andy Kindler. I would have really enjoyed settling in for a quiet, contemplative, in-depth one-on-one with Andy, but podcasters can't be choosers. Instead, I got a rollicking chatfest over a late night meal at D'Angelo's Italian restaurant, the usual hang for comedians following the Mark Pitta & Friends show at the 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley, California. And it wasn't just Andy and me. We were joined by Mark Pitta, Larry "Bubbles" Brown, and Bob Rubin, all of whom would randomly come and go at our table, cracking wise and telling stories as the occasion warranted. In between, Andy answered a few of my questions, none of which really got into his background so if you're unfamiliar with Andy or why he's regarded so highly among comedians, you may not understand why the flock of comics around our table were drawn there like moths to a flame. We do get into some of Andy's thinking about comedy itself and a bit of his history. So it's safe to say there's something for everyone in here. THE SORT-OF-COUNTDOWN Having abandoned my countdown of Stitcher's Top 10 Comedy Podcasts because the top shows rarely change position, here's this week's The 10 Most Active in the Stitcher Top 100 Comedy Podcast List*: 10. By The Way: In Conversation with Jeff Garlin +5429. Sklarbro Country +1748. The Paul F. Tompkast +6353. The Phil Hendrie Podcast +1958. The Tenderloins Podcast +8680. The Ricky Gervais Show +3081. Dennis Has A Podcast -2695. Frangela’s Idiot Of The Week +3996. NewsPop Comedy +32100. Work Sucks +30  *The number on the left is the show's ranking in the Top 100. The number on the right are the number of places, up or down, the show moved this last week in ALL of Stitcher's rankings for comedy podcasts. KICKSTARTING A new campaign over on Kickstarter.com that caught my eye is That's Not Funny, a documentary by filmmaker Mike Celestino. He's talked to some comedians (and wants to talk to a lot more) about subject matter in comedy that rubs some people the wrong way, and why. Succotash kicked him 50 bucks but he's trying to raise $50 THOUSAND to complete the project. (He's already got interviews in the can with funny folks such as Emery Emery, Jackie Kashian, Kyle Kinane, Greg Proops, and Paul Provenza. As of this posting, he's got 30+ days to go but that's going to run out quick. I'll have him on for a quick chat about the film in Epi56 but, in the meantime, click the link or hop over to http://hersh.co/16ntubA and see if you can't help him out. BURST O' DURST Our regular check-in by Will Durst has our favorite raging moderate peering over at the US Supreme Court's reason tussle over the marriage equality issue. CLIPS The Rob & Joe ShowWe've featured snippet from Rob Maher & Joe Robinson's podcast before. This time it's an indelicate peek into Joe's sexual past. It's not exactly tasteful but, if you're looking for that, there's still terrestrial radio out there for you… The Random Variety Show PodcastAnother return visitor this episode is Charley Miller and his Random Variety Show. The chunk Charley sent us is a story he created with the help of sentences sent in by listeners.(BTW, I'm slated to be a guest on the RVS podcast sometime this month - I'll give you a heads up and a link when it happens!) Todd N’ Tyler Radio EmpireThe Todd N’ Tyler Radio Empire has been cranking on air since 1993 out of KEZO in Omaha, Nebraska. They’re syndicated on a number of stations, on the internet and their show has – as so many other radio shows have – become podcastted. Even with all that coverage, I am embarrassed to say I have never heard of Todd Brandt and Mike Tyler until I read last episode’s The 10 Most Active in the Stitcher Top 100 Comedy Podcast List. That’s when T-N-T rocketed into the Top 100, landing at #73 and climbing an incredible 306 places in one week. So I just HAD to clip 'em… The Q ShowMark Bland sent us a sample of The Q Show which originates from St. Louis, Missouri. The description off the homesite tells us that the show is about "everything and is liberal/moderate radio for people with a brain!" Check out our sample tidbit and see if you qualify. That's what we've got for you this time around. I'm off on a road trip this week with Dana Carvey and Larry "Bubbles" Brown, during which time we are going to attempt to record enough material for one and maybe even two upcoming episodes. THAT should make it worth passing the Succotash, right? — Marc Hershon 

Happy New Year! 2012 had many ups and downs, and that counts in comedy podcasting, too. Some podcasts went off the rails — such as Affirmation Nation and The Gentlemens' Club — never to be heard from again. While at the same time, milestones were passed for others. What did WTF, Nerdist, and Never Not Funny have in common? They all dropped their 300th episode this year! Congrats! And You Made It Weird, Who Charted?, Walking the Room, The Long Shot, and Sklarbo Country all turned the corner on their episode 100 in 2012. And the granddaddy of the comedy podcast ilk, Tom Scharpling's The Best Show On WFMU, actually rang up its 500th episode! I came up with the idea of doing a Top 10 Comedy Podcasts of 2012 but, unfortunately, the concept hit me the day before I was going to record Epi45. I didn't have the time or even a methodology in mind to pull it off, so I did the next best thing. I borrowed a list from the AV Club. They had their panel of reviewers dole out 50 points a piece amongst the podcasts out there in the universe, did careful calculations and considerations before posting their list. I swear we'll do something like that…next year. In the meantime, here's how the AV Club's list shook out: 10. Walking The Room9.   Pop Culture Happy Hour8.   Nerdist7.   Doug Loves Movies6.   The Pod F. Tompkast5.   (tie) Sklarbro Country / The Best Show on WFMU4.   You Made It Weird3.   Savage Love2.   Comedy Bang Bang1.   WTF This list was meant to be from ALL realms of podcasts but, as you can see, the majority are comedy-based in nature. Three of them have never been clipped on Succotash before, so we make up for that in this episode, with the exception of Savage Love, hosted by Dan Savage out of Seattle, Washington. The reason being that it is not a comedy p'cast but, instead, a very good and somewhat edgy relationship and sexual advice show. (It's currently #1 on Stitcher's Lifestyle & Health Top 100 list.) POD MAFIA IRREGULARS Last episode was our Succotash Christmas Card episode to those podcasts in the Pod Mafia collective of internet shows. But there are also a group of shows that have been very supportive of not just our podcast but a number of the Pod Mafia shows as well, so I'm referring to them as the Pod Mafia Irregulars. And this episode we pay tribute to them by clipping some recent editions of The Brit & The American, The Clutch & Wiggle Experience, The Random Variety Show, Toggle The Switch and Bonn And Obo. FUNNY MUSIC TIME  This episode's music break is furnished by the duo of Paul & Storm. It's their song Nugget Man, a salute to Robert C. Baker, inventor of the Chicken McNugget. Please click on their name to be linked to their most excellent website, which is festooned with their many musical selections! They also have a podcast you should check out, entitled Paul and Storm Talk About Some Stuff for Five to Ten Minutes (On Average). BURST O' DURST This time around, our Ambassador to The Middle, political comedian Will Durst gives us is Ode to Twenty Twelve. CLIPS Pop Culture Happy HourNPR's entertainment and pop culture round-table podcast features Linda Holmes, Trey Graham, Stephen Thompson & Glen Weldon having spirited discussions of movies, books, television, nostalgia, and anything else that might be making them happy. NerdistCongrats to Chris Hardwick, Jonah Ray and Matt Myra! Their Nerdist podcast hit Epi300 this past week or so. And to celebrate the moment, they returned to whence they began, doing the podcast in the office of Thomas Lennon’s house. Lennon was their very first guest and (for my money) he is one of the funniest guests in podcasting, ranking up there with the likes of Paul F. Tompkins. The Best Show on WFMUThe Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling is a combination music/call-in/comedy radio show originating from New Jersey-based radio station WFMU. The Best Show first aired on October 10, 2000 and, as mentioned up top, they've aired/dropped over 500 episodes! The Brit & The AmericanThe Brit and The American – namely Alba Lewis and Tom Moore – have translocated to Peru for the next 6 months but continue to pump out the podcasts on a regular basis. We feature a taste from a recent episode, which I think is PRE-Peru. The Clutch & Wiggle ExperienceYour hosts Rob and Craig (along with K-Love) take you on a verbal whirlwind as they spin, annihilate and humiliate everything and anything in the world today. Straight from the basement on a real air hockey table, they bring comedy and "justice" the way no one else sees the world. (Their CWERadio.com also rebroadcasts episodes of Succotash each week!  Random Variety Show PodcastCharley Miller is a good friend of Succotash and we’d be remiss if we didn’t include him in this belated Christmas card to the Pod Mafia Irregulars. In this clip Groucho Marx, who handles most of the heavy lifting when it comes to the interviews on  RVSP, talks to Libby Marie and Lishia from the Two Funny Girls podcast. Toggle the SwitchCross-Pacific podcast Toggle The Switch features Susan Wygmans from America and Carl McAteer from Australia. Susan started out as part of the Cuddlah Army, a total fan of Walking The Room with Greg Behrendt and Dave Anthony, and now she finds herself with listeners of her own. We have a snippet of their show talking about “humpy time” and, right after that, we’ve got a little holiday message from the pair that was delayed due to a snag in our Tweetsack. BonnAndOboHere’s a show that’s definitely Pod Mafia worthy, not to mention they are requesting some guest vocal input from our very own Bill Haywatt. I’ve sent out a request to Bill’s favorite watering holes and, if we can get him upright long enough to record those lines, we’ll get them to you. In this clip, they bring in a very special guest. Epic Rant RadioAs part of Epic Rant Radio with Andre and Eric, they have a feature called “Rounds”, where the two guys go at it over certain subjects. In this clip, it’s the merits of watching old Sex And The City versus Glee. King MeanyA few episodes ago, I talked about a new sketch group out of England called King Meany. Liam Beirne, Andy Goddard, Shem Jeffs, Natalie Feehan, and Lizzie Milton were getting ready to start podcasting and now…they have! IllusionoidOne of my personal favorite podcasts is out of Canada. Illusionoid, with Paul Bates, Lee Smart, and Nug Nahrgang. This was their holiday offering, The Christmas Ninjas, and we play the whole thing. In the coming year, I'm hoping to have more interesting interviews with podcasters, comedians and interesting people from the world of entertainment. I also hope to keep up a regular release schedule, which should be welcome news for those of you you enjoy a helping of Succotash you can depend on. And I'm going to feature a recipe for actual succotash at the tail end of every episode this year that I've found online. Why? Just to help you to pass the Succotash even more! — Marc Hershon

Happy holidays! Whether you're a Christmas-er, an Hanuakkat, or a Kwanza-hut, Succotash is damned glad to have you. "It's the time of miracles," said Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber in Die Hard and it's true. First of all, we're back in Studio P for the first time in many episodes. So good to have engineer/producer Joe Paulino back behind the controls. Not to mention Bill Haywatt, who has a fresh installment of Boozin' With Bill on tap this time around. Even Kenny Durgess, our booth assistant, is on the job and it's a great way to ring in the holiday season. I wanted to do something special for the holidays, so Epi44 is our Succotash Christmas Card to the illustrious members of the Pod Mafia. Who ARE the Pod Mafia? A loose collective of podcasters who have struck up a virtual (and sometimes actual) friendship via the web, and have actively worked to cross-promote each others' podcasts. I am pleased and honored to have been dubbed the Podfather by this crew, although I'm aware it's a precarious perch at best and someone else could shake me loose at any time. Nonetheless, for the meantime, as Podfather, it's my pleasure to offer up clips from the assembled members of the Pod Mafia this episode. One of the best things about getting to do an epi of Succotash in Studio P is that it puts us in proximity to Bill Haywatt's wet bar and give us a chance to present Boozin' With Bill. This time about, that workhorse of radio drops a great post New Year's hangover drink on us which he calls Harry Of The Dog That Bit You. It's named for Harry Morgan, with whom Bill worked on an old radio show called Mystery In The Air, and it's a real doozy. Burst O' Durst Our resident raging moderate, Will Durst, sounds off about gun control in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School nightmare. Holiday Reminder Show some love to your favorite podcasts by hopping up to iTunes and both rating and reviewing those same podcasts with lots of stars and glowing praise. Then do the same on Stitcher Smart Radio - go up to their website, search for your faves and give them a big ol "thumbs up!" Every little bit helps, and the more often you do it, the better their visibility gets on the charts. Sing A Song Of Yuletide I'm happy to be able to feature Is A Chupacabra Kosher?, a new song off the Season's Geekings EP by friend-of-Succotash John Anealio. Jump over to his website to give yourself a stocking stuffer: A free download of his holiday album! Happy Holidays From Henderson's Pants! We have a commercial this episode from our friends at Henderson's. More than a commercial, it's a tale done in the style of the popular Christmas poem, 'Twas The Night Before Christmas. Enjoy!  A Good Run Our friend Caleb Bacon, host of The Gentlemen's Club podcast, has run down the curtain on that show after 154 episodes. I give him a final salute in the form of a review in This Week In Comedy Podcasts on Splitsider.com but don't despair— Caleb is already prepping to return in February 2013 with his new podcast, Man School! In his farewell episode, Caleb is interviewed as much as he interviews by his guest, That Chris Gore of PodCRASH podcast fame. The Clips As I mentioned above, all the clips this week save one are from members of the Pod Mafia. Dylan Brody's Neighbor's CouchAlthough Darren Staley is not a member of the Pod Mafia, I think he would be if he trafficked with out kind more. Last epi I though I was going to get to his clip but it didn't happen. So I promised him we'd give him pole position this time around.In addition to being a supporter Succotash his show's audio audio quality has gotten steadily better since I first started listening. And his guests are often, amazing, quite celebrity-statured. This clip features part of his chat with Rosanne Barr. Royal & DoodallTommy Royal of the Royal & Doodall show is – I'm pretty sure – the bloke responsible for coining not just the Pod Mafia name, but also for dubbing yours truly the Podfather. Unfortunately, Tommy is not in the show I'm clipping this episode. It seems he's been replace by Lady Isabel P., who co-hosts this installment with Angus Doodall. Don't miss their Christmas Panto show which should I have role in. See if you can pick out my voice — I’m an audio chameleon. Don't Quit Your DaycastEd Wallick from Don’t Quit Your Daycast is not just a member of the Pod Mafia but was inspired, in part, do put his own podcast together after hearing Succotash. He just had his one-year-a-versary show, where he ranted – Ed loves to rant – ranted about Thanksgiving with guests Taylor Ripley (aka @TurkReno) and Tom Bevis of the Destination Asphyxiation podcast. (We also have a Christmas Greeting called into the Succotash Hotline by Ed!) Destination AsphyxiationSince we have Ed Wallick and Tom Bevis in the same room – Tom was up from Southern California visiting Ed in Northern California, who turns out to be his uncle – let’s listen for the first time to a clip from Tom’s Destination Asphyxiation show. Oh, look – it’s Ed Wallick, ranting some more! The DHead FactorThough Jabs at The DHead Factor has other fellows who occasionally do the show with him in Canberra, Australia – like #FUJosh – he’s definitely the body and soul of the show and a stalwart member of the Pod Mafia. As the guy who kicked of International Succotash Show Day on December 4th – I hope you all celebrated it – he’s always saluted here at Studio P. Tiny Little Odd ConversationsMerry Christmas to Travis and Brandi Clark, the hosts of Tiny Odd Conversations. They were almost out of the Pod Mafia before it began toward the end last year because Travis was feeling like there was nowhere else to go with the show. I helped talk him off the ledge, and glad to have done so because we may never have gotten that great cookie recipe from Chef Eddie Vetter otherwise. Here’s part of a conversation that Travis and Brandi had on their Not The Holiday Special episode, about a homeless Santa they came across. Pissed Off ManI THINK Gavin from The Pissed Off Man Show is in the Pod Mafia. But I didn’t want to take a chance that he isn’t because he IS the Pissed Off Man. So Merry Christmas, Gee, and for a guy who says he doesn’t have much to be pissed off about on the last day of existence, according to the Mayan calendar, he still gets a few shots in… From Out Of NowhereThe From Out of Nowhere podcast – or FOONcast – with Eric Furniss and Rob Kern is really a music podcast but they’ve got a sense of humor and Eric is very active on Twitter as a member of the Pod Mafia. They’ve been doing their show from a local bar because their studio got damaged by Hurrican Sandy. The show I grabbed to clip from, however, actually features Rob in a bar interview he did awhile back with Motörhead's Lemmy Kilmister and Matt Sorum. Sorry, Eric – I was in a hurry! We’ll get your voice in there next time. So that's who's in our Christmas card to the members of the Pod Mafia. I hope I remembered everybody. And I know there are some folks in the Pod Mafia Irregulars that I wanted to clip this episode but there just wasn’t time. I WILL clip you guys next epi, but in the meantime, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to the folks behind Bonnandobo, The Brit And The American, Clutch & Wiggle, The Random Variety Show and Toggle The Switch! Happy holidays to everybody (especially those of you who have discovered, listened to, and enjoy our show!), and may you all have a great new year, in which you should remember, for the sake of all that's holy, to pass the Succotash!  Marc Hershon

We interview Charlie Miller, the host of the Random Variety Show podcast! LISTEN IN YOUR BROWSER Related Links: The Random Variety Show Podcast The Wicked Radio Network  The post Charlie Miller! – Episode 006 appeared first on EpicPodQuest | Pop-Culture, Entertainment, Technology, Nerd News.

Although episode 36 of Succotash finds us back in Studio P ("The Home of The Hit!"), it's without the benefit of our engineer/producer Joe Paulino this time. Under the unsteady hand of booth assistant Kenny Durgess, the good ship Succotash manages to make the journey through the rocky shoals of podcast clips and interviews (not to mention a new Boozin' With Bill segment) to arrive in one piece in your ears. I'd planned to have Will Durst, our Ambassador to the Middle and the funniest political comic this side of Congress, live in the studio. He's just put out a new e-book, Elect To Laugh, a collection of his syndicated newspaper columns and I figured he'd snap up the chance to plug it. This being an election year with very little time left on the clock, it’s a political comic’s busiest season so we'll have to reschedule for right after Libertarian President Gary Johnson gets sworn in. (See what I did there? It's a joke about the fact I probably will never get Will into the studio...) You can click the links here or visit http://SuccotashShow.com and look for the cover of Will's book for a link to where you can buy and download a copy. Not to mention that with close out this edition of the show with our usual Burst O' Durst. The host with past Succotash guest Joe Klocek In the realm of other things comedy, apropos of nothing having to do with this podcast, I was at the 32nd annual Comedy Day in San Francisco Sunday before last. It's a big tradition in the history of Bay Area comedy, dubbed by the event's originator, the late Jose Simon, as the local comedy scene's version of a company picnic. I hung out backstage, said howdy to a bunch of comedian friends I probably won't see most of for another year, and enjoyed a rare warm and sunny summer day in Golden Gate Park. As mentioned above, show announcer Bill Haywatt stumbles into Studio P this episode to ply me with alcohol in another edition of his Boozin' With Bill segment. This time we literally are draining the dregs of this bit when he prepares the drink he calls "The Starter Kit", basing what we swill down on what he finds left in the glasses and bottles strewn around Studio P following some kind of wild party that went on there the night before we taped the show. Normally you want to follow a recipe pretty closely but, in the case of The Starter Kit, you can pretty much throw in whatever you find lying around. Here's what is in the clip set for Epi36: Fitzdog RadioGreg Fitzsimmons has a great show not just because of the fact he’s genuinely entertaining and funny, but he manages to get some great guests, including producer/director Judd Apatow who, in this clip talks about supporting comedy (being a reformed standup himself), Tweeting too much and casting his own kids in movies. The Geek GenerationRob Logan, Bryan Lipsitz and Mike Volpe are within spitting distance of their 100th Geek Generation episode - congrats, guys - and thought we'd enjoy hearing a slice of their visit with Hollywood producer and former WCW talent Jeff Katz. He tells about the mistakes that were made in regards to Deadpool's character, ultimately resulting in him leaving production of the Wolverine movie. Tiny Odd ConversationsNot just a clip from Tiny Odd Conversations this episode, but I actually Skyped it up with TOC cohost Travis Clark to dig into the detail of his upcoming Hashtag Comedy Show in Los Angeles. What started out as mostly a joke to get people to donate to his and wife Brandi's podcast has lunged out of control into a full-fledged night of comedy with the focus being on having his non-standup spouse get on stage to tell jokes. The show is on for November 11 at The Other Door in North Hollywood. And you can get free tickets just by donating to the cause! So click over to http://TOCpod.com and help joke the life our of Brandi Clark! We also play a clip from TOC feauring their first-ever celebrity chef segment with none other than Chef Eddie Vedder. Podd SocksFirst time on for a show from Down Under I haven’t heard of before, featuring a quartet of Aussie 20-somethings — Ben Dunlop, Kris Francis, Nathan Press and Jack de Zwart — sitting around and shooting the shite about "current events, pop culture, telling personal stories from their lives and analysing conspiracy theories" as their website tells it. Cashing In with TJ MillerI've featured a clip before but I’ve loved the concept for this podcast ever since host Cash Levy told it to me so I'm playing some more. It’s supposed to be a regular talk show style podcast with various guests…but every episode the guest who was scheduled never shows up and comedian/actor TJ Miller is always called to fill in. This clip finds them in a riff about going back to where you grew up to do a comedy show and the kind of reception you get from the old hometown crowd. They also coin the term "hot pods". Random Variety Show PodcastFlattery may not get you many places but it will definitely get your comedy podcast clip on this show. Especially, as in the case of friend-od-Succotash Charley Miller, who has declared that listening to our podcast is what got him psyched up to do The Random Variety Show. Charley's 17.5 episodes into his show, which originates out of San Diego, and he features interviews with various locally-based performers as well as some unusual guest...like Groucho Marx. Don’t Quit Your DaycastAnother fine fellow who’s leapt onto the podcasting soundstage recently is Ed Wallick, who’s also been venturing on the open mic stages around the Bay Area for the past couple of years. Like Charley Miller, he credits Succotash with showing him a way to do his own thing on the interwebs and it’s been fun watching him develop his format and style along the way. In this clip from DQYP, Ed teams up with Tiny Odd Conversation's Travis Clark to create Jesse vs. Jesse, a bit about battling Jesse Venturas. Venturai? The HustleCo-hosts Will Gilman and Adam Tucker run conversationally amok with a variety of guests — comedians, musicians and — I think — random dudes off the street sometimes. In this clip they have fellow comedians Harry J. Riley and Justin McNiff in the house and they’re riffing about men having a limit on the number of erections we get in our lifetimes. In addition to clips this episode, I feature Angy Robot, a cut off of the album Laser Zombie Robot Love by sci-fi/comedy musician (and past Succotash guest) John Anealio. Feel free to not only enjoy the tunage, but click over to John's site (http://JohnAnealio.com) and grab the whole album for yourself for just $5 bucks. Finally, as promised on the actual podcast, here's the artist's rendering of yours truly by Angus Doodall Tommy Royal of the Royal & Doodall podcast, luxuriating over a steaming bowl of succotash. Truly a thing of beauty to behold. I should get the original from him and auction it off. That's our show. Presented for your pleasure. (Here's joping Engineer Joe makes it back in time for the next in-studio edition of the show!) Please remember to pass the Succotash. — Marc Hershon