The Podiwan Review 9 – Fitzdog Radio

Fitzdog Radio is Greg Fitzsimmons (@GregFitzShow) done from the Fitzdog studios in Venice, CA (his garage, I think, but that’s kinda normal for podcasters). I first heard of him listening to Marc Maron. I don’t know enough about their history together and I’m not all that interested but I think they used to work together and do not or cannot anymore. Since Marc was on a satellite radio show, I’m gonna assume that Fitz was too. Feel free to correct me at any time and I’ll update this blog. But I ain't doing homework.


Greg is a better interviewer than Marc Maron mostly because I think he listens to what the responder says and he may even be interested in the response (or at least he can fake it with a Porn Star) whereas I’m almost positive the Marc Maron couldn’t give a shit what the answer is since he’s really only waiting for your mouth to stop moving so that he can start his again. (and you know, as long as it’s funny, it’s OK, even if it is insensitive and rude.  Funny is king. ) Anyway, this isn’t about Maron. Greg isn’t always funnier than Maron but he is a better interviewer and he has better manners.


One knock on the show is a technical problem.  The compression they're using in post is making the sound tinny. That won't make a big difference to most, but I work with audio sometimes and it matters to me.  I think they need to back off the compression just a bit and fix the levels in his little studio (garage) so that the sound doesn't bang so hard. Another knock is that the sponsor plugs for audible.com go on for way too long.  I understand that the show is free and the reason it stays free is advertisers and keeping the lights on with sponsor money is as old as radio so one can't really knock it too much.  Just, let's try to keep the plugs shorter than full on bits.  Also, Fitzdog is looking at going to a pay for play format like some of the other podcasters trying to find a way to monitize the medium.  There are enough free things to listen to for me to stay filled up so, if it goes that way, Fitzy would lose me, but he has enough loyal followers that at least he could pay his rent.


All 44 episodes of Fitzdog Radio are available for download at iTunes. There is a new ep every week and the shows are variously from 25 to 55 minutes. The current library of shows only goes back to last August (when he discontinued working with Maron, I think)


Is this podcast entertaining? - Mostly
Am I likely to listen to the next podcast? – depends upon the guests listed
Do I recommend this podcast to friends? – considering it

The Podiwan Review 7 – WTF with Marc Maron

NYC to Southern California transplant (and soon to be moving back to NYC) Marc Maron is completely neurotic. Not in the socially crippled and emotionally dysfunctional manner of Woody Allan or George Costanza but more like every other person you know who has one or two issues, except that Marc has all of them. As fodder for his WTF podcast, whatever issue Marc is currently stressing over you can be sure that he will rant on it for as long as necessary to make sure that every last drop of festering ooze is expressed. The points are usually cogent, coherent and well written (or at least well organized) and sometimes while not outright funny, they are at the very least amusing. Recently he has been proactively trying to be a “better human” so many of his issues come with the caveat that this is "his problem" with the world, not the "world’s problem" and he has to do a better job of dealing with it. During the opening portion of the show while Marc is monologue-ing, don’t expect a lot of laughs but do expect that you will recognize his talking point as relevant to your life. As soon as he finishes that you’ll get to hear from his guest.  Sometimes the guests are in his home studio but more often they are interviewed remotely via studio hookup or telephone. His connections in the comedy world allow him to grab fairly high profile A and B list comics for one on one interviews that don't seem like interviews; they're just conversations. Depending upon the chemistry it can either be very funny or downright painful but the balance almost always tips towards entertaining. After the guest interview, Marc calls his father, a practicing physician in New York. The father son banter is refreshing in that these two guys who seem to genuinely like and respect each other and only happen to be related.


70 episodes in the library averaging about an hour each, all available at itunes and wtfpod.com and you can follow him @marcmaron.


My rating scale
Is this podcast entertaining? - Mostly
Am I likely to listen to the next podcast? – 50/50
Do I recommend this podcast to friends? – not yet but probably someday