The Podiwan Review 22 - Superego Podcast

Comedy podcasts, thrown in a large container and shaken for a while, stratify into aggregate groups. The vast majority of podcasts are essentially a comedian or a comedian and his or her friends, sitting around and talking. The next largest group is that first category but with guests. The smallest fraction of the comedy podcast world is made up of produced shows... which is a shame because they are some of the best. Superego Podcast: Profiles in Self Obsession is one of the best of the best. Superego (@gosuperego) is an edited improv podcast that is so funny that I have, at times, found it difficult to breath or maintain urinary control. The only problem with this podcast, as far as I'm concerned, is that the shows are too short and there are too few of them. Each podcast is roughly half an hour in length and there are 17 shows in a season. Superego is currently in the middle of season 3 except that the troupe has recently been busy trying to make a living and have had less time to put out much more than a few short specialty episodes (joint efforts with the folks at Thrilling Adventure Hour).

The framework for the podcast is psychological case studies and the main performers are casts as mental health professionals. Well, not so much cast as photographed. The improvised sketches don't actually center on a psychosis. They're just funny, but they're introduced as a syndrome, malady or affected disorder and the characters in the given bit are, at least for comedic purposes, within the definition of that disorder.

Superego members (Dr.)Jeremy Carter, (Dr.)Matt Gourley, Mark McConville and Jeff Crocker improvise and then edit down bits to 3-5 minute chunks of pure lunacy. They regularly revisit sketch topics and characters that have previously produced comedy gold. To date, those mines are still producing. My personal favorites include Shunt McGuppin, a country music legend with no filter on his monologue, Maggie the GPS voice with too much emotional investment, Dueling Announcers Bruce" the Throat Hume" and Ed "the Inflection" Oliva, Imogene Kanouse aggressive horn-dog with a throat buzzer, Rev. Leroy Jenkins, Hart and Sole - Wrestler Voice Over Guys and the conversational Cylon Warriors from the 70's version of Battlestar Galactica. I can't list all of their sketches and characters as favorites as it defeats the concept of favorites, but honestly, I haven't heard anything from them that wasn't funny or that I wanted to skip over to get to something else.

As stated previously, Superego Podcast is edited improvisation. That description bears discussion in that it goes to the heart of why this is both polished and wildly creative. The Superego group will begin with a basic premise, start the recording and then just riff. They may have a few lines or gags that they want to hit on the way through, but mostly it is stream of consciousness. There are other improv podcasts out there and though they are often funny for long stretches, they also have those moments that, as a listener, you wish they might have skipped, and as artists, you can bet they would have preferred to cut out. Those others are "produced" shows and I appreciate their risk taking and basic comedy chops, but, the thing that sets Superego apart is that they go back into the recording and cut out the fluff, the crap and the unfunny. They make it tight. So tight, in fact, that it is often hard to breathe and one might have to go back and re-listen to catch everything. The editing genius of Matt Gourley, who also edits other podcasts such as Judge John Hodgman and The Sound of Young America, is the secret ingredient that makes this podcast more than just funny people having fun and sharing it. It becomes comedy art.

The list of comedic talent that lines up to work with this group is truly impressive. Giants in improv as well as some of the best known standups, writers and personalities come out of the woodwork to get into a sketch with Superego. Here's a short list (well not really short but it is impressive): Patton Oswalt, Jason Sudeikis, John Hodgman, Drew Carey, Greg Proops, Paul F. Tompkins, Andy Daly, Colin Hanks, Steve Agee, Julie Klausner, Joe Lo Truglio, Rich Sommer, James Urbaniak, Jesse Thorn and Mark Gagliardi.

The dearth of podcasts that go beyond sitting and talking, even among funny people, requires that when we see something as wonderfully creative and funny as Superego, that we make absolutely sure the word gets out. I don't think there's an immediate chance of this podcast going away, but people who want good podcast programming from talented people need to support this kind of show to make sure that there is always a place for it.

I can see no shortcomings to this podcast other than that they just don't make enough of them. Also, inasmuch as I'm happy to enjoy several episodes in a row, they could go longer on each episode without offending this listener. There are 3 seasons of shows to work your way through, so those new to the podcast won't have to suffer shortages until they are well and truly addicted.


My rating scale
Is this podcast entertaining? - Yes. To the point of asphyxiation.
Am I likely to listen to the next podcast? – Yes, almost as soon as it plops.
Do I recommend this podcast to friends? – Yes, whenever I can.

The Podiwan Review 16 - David Feldman's Comedy Podcast

On the surface of things, this article is the review of David Feldman's Comedy Podcast, but for this particular review I'm going to vary the routine a bit by also revisiting an artist that I said not such great things about previously.  And here's why.


I was at the airport picking up a friend the other day and while I waited I was listening to David Feldman's Comedy Podcast.  I was listening to the 7/13 episode titled Comedia Del'Farte.  It was good, not the best he's done but pretty much OK and his cast of supporting funny people always make the show better than the sum of its parts... more than just a stand up podcast.  I dig their effort and the "Let's Put on a Show!" style of performance and the "let's smear boogers on the Mona Lisa" mentality.  I have a couple favorite episodes and I'll get to them in a few minutes.


Anyway, Del'Farte ran its course and since I have several Feldmans in the queue, the next one started:  the 7/12 episode with Todd Glass.  Many of you will recognize that I didn't review Todd favorably the one and only time I included him in this blog.  That was when I reviewed Jimmy Dore's show "Comedy and Everything Else".   I mostly liked Jimmy's show but I didn't dig Todd.  In fact, if you read that review, you'll kinda see that I never really have dug Todd.  I felt like Todd was a conversational bully using noise, bluster, machine gun chatter and backhanded slights to control every single moment of any show that involved him.  It was a giant "look at me" fit in the middle of somebody else's birthday party like you might expect to see in a 12- or 13-year-old ADD who skipped the Ritalin for a few days.  Granted, that last bit, or the need to exhibit that particular part of their inner beast, describes 95% of all stand ups.  But Todd just gets under my skin in a way that no other comic seems to.  Worse than that, he breaks the cardinal rule of comedy. He isn't funny.  Or at the very least, not very often.


You can pretty much do anything you want as a stand up.  You can be a racist dwarf-tossing transgender Nazi who likes to mow down bunny heads using an old John Deere 325 riding mower with a satanic goat skull as a hood ornament... as long as it's funny.
Everything else is crap.


So, I'm at the airport, waiting for my friend at the wrong baggage carousel because he's coming in from Houston instead of his usual Chicago, and David Feldman introduces Todd Glass.


I admit it.  I rolled my eyes a little and sighed just a little out of reflex.  I'm human,  I have a preconceived notion of what I can expect from Todd Glass.  I understand that a lot of people find him funny, but for me, Todd pushes all the wrong buttons. And yeah, that feeling probably affects the way I perceive his humor.  I come to the table with an idea that I don't like broccoli.  It doesn't matter that somebody poured cheese over it or dipped it in ranch dressing or gold or the filtered pee of 15 virgins, I'm not gonna like it and I know that before I taste it and even if it is well done by everybody else's standard, I'm still going to say no thanks. 


So yeah, I feel this way.  I hate like hell that I have prejudices that color my opinions, but I do.  I'm human, shoot me.

The show starts, Feldman does his written material.  There's some yuks and twitters in the crowds.  He introduces the folks who are normally there and then he brings on Glass.  And for the next 10 minutes, Glass steps on every joke anybody else tries to make.  He verbally bullied his way into nearly every second of the segment and he essentially hijacked the show.  I should mention here that Feldman's show is mostly scripted like an old time radio show but there are times when they depart from that,... (those times seems like they are when Feldman and company know that a guest won't or can't follow the script.)  At those times they just try to have a conversation.  With Glass, good luck having a conversation.  It's just him, rambling, throwing jokes that don't work, explaining why we're not smart enough to get the jokes and how nobody understands lighting in restaurants but him. (yes, lighting.  It seems to be a recurring theme with Glass.)

I felt bad the first time I said that Todd Glass rubs me the wrong way.  Maybe I was being unfair saying that he's irritating, pompous, overbearing and just flat out unfunny.  But after listening to him screw up 10 minutes of somebody else's podcast, I think I was right.  Todd Glass rubs me the wrong way.  He's pompous, overbearing and just flat out unfunny.  I've learned my lesson.  If I don't want to come away from a podcast grinding my molars and thinking up new ways to say I don't enjoy Todd Glass as an entertainer I should avoid listening to anything with his name in the title or credits.

OK, there.  Done.  I've said all I will say about Todd Glass and I'm hopeful that I've actually typed the name Todd Glass for the last time.  Now I'd like to tell you about David Feldman's Comedy Podcast and my favorite one or two episodes.

First, the show is an ensemble.  Feldman is the lead; it's his name on the marquee, but David is helped quite a lot by his merrymaking minions, Alan Chapman (musical director and comedy songwriter/singer), Eddie Pepitone (sidekick/flunky/resident punching bag), Stefanae (yes, stef uh nay) Zamarano and Jim Earl.  Others who also contribute regularly (as part of the Clutter Family) are Rick Overton, Jimmy Dore, Jane Edith Wilson and Ron Babcock.  Each week, one or two guests add their voices to the scripted portion of the show as well as a possible interview segment.

As far as the written part of the show goes (and this is for both the cold open by Feldman and the scripted multi-character segment for the cast) the jokes contained therein aren't usually the kind that if you read them on paper you'd laugh out loud.  You might say to yourself, "That's funny."  You might smile a bit or let out a small heh heh.  What makes this show laugh-out-loud funny for me, and what brings me back every week, isn't the "ripped from the very old headlines" stories that are stuffed to overflowing with double entendres and homocentric potty humor.  It's the voices.  The often deadpan sound of a cold reading from the guests who laugh in their lines, the voice of reason and calm that comes from Feldman reading meta jokes he isn't completely convinced about, the whiny snagglepuss of Alan Chapman as David's "wife" in their crossover (home life/podlife) relationship and finally, and most importantly, the completely manic histrionics of Eddie Pepitone.

Ah, Pepitone.  In this show, used in this way, he is genius.  I'm convinced (but just barely) that he should not carry his own show.  30 minutes of straight Eddie would border on too much Eddie,  but in this show, he is the topping that turns soft serve into a sundae.  Without Eddie, you've got ice cream.  Everybody likes ice cream, but I really love a good sundae.

My two favorite shows so far were almost 100% scripted plays.  The first was when guest Patton Oswalt appeared.  The show was a send-up of 70's sitcoms.  The gag was that Patton, as a kid, had starred in a show called "Patton Pending".  This show was "blow Pepsi out your nose" funny in multiple places and Peppitone played the part of a wizened, forest-dwelling uncle dispensing advice and odd suggestions to the young Patton ( but I swear that for at least a week I thought the part had been played by Richard Kind).  I nearly peed my pants at one point and I hadn't done that since I saw the mime telling the eponymous joke in Paul Provenza's movie "The Aristocrats" start to work over the small imaginary dog in the act.

My second most fav was the Changeling episode with Paul Provenza as the Chief of Police.  Rather than a child being abducted, it was Eddie the sidekick.  The super effective, talented and well loved replacement Eddie (following the plot of the movie) was nearly as funny as the real  moronic, oafish and odorous Eddie. It wasn't pee-my-pants funny, but it was well-written, mostly well-performed and had those moments during the play when the actors crack each other up that I've always thought allows the audience into the joke as conspirators rather than as mere spectators and makes the entire experience more than just watching a funny skit.

I wish more podcasts were like David Feldman's Comedy podcast.  I think episodic, podcast teleplays (podiplays? pladipods?)  are liked by people who look for podcasts to listen to.  Such shows could potentially do that thing that advertisers sooooo slobber for, namely, bring receptive listeners back to the same place over and over again and make them great targets for commercials.  The first show that I want that to happen for: "Patton Pending".  I know it's a send up "one-off" show, but I want to hear as many episodes of that show as they can write.  But next time I'll pee before I listen.



My rating scale
Is this podcast entertaining? - Yes, oh yes
Am I likely to listen to the next podcast? – I do every week
Do I recommend this podcast to friends? – Without reservation

The Podiwan Review 8 – Comedy Death-Ray Radio Podcast

Comedy Death-Ray (CDR) co-creator Scott Aukerman started hosting "Comedy Death-Ray Radio" on Indie 103.1 as a weekly radio program.  Aukerman interviews many of the comedians who regularly appear in the live CDR shows. These one-hour broadcasts are later archived as podcasts that are available on iTunes. The show is a virtual who’s who of stand up comedy, comedy writers and new media comedy producers. If they’re in the business, they’ll end up on Aukerman’s show. Since the sit down interview is done in a studio, there is no audience interaction, it’s just one-on-one with the guest(s).  Occasionally co-hosts, like Aziz Ansari(@azizansari) show up and help out. CDR Radio shows are decidedly low-key, unlike the live Comedy Death-Ray Show’s held at the UCB in LA which are raucous affairs with interplay between audience and players. Because the radio interview is done live on Indie 103.1, Aukerman is able to take phone calls and web questions for the guests.  That's almost never funny (but that's not exclusive to this show).  It's a device as old as talk radio and really just helps to burn time and move things along when the host runs out of convo.  It feels a little lazy but everybody does it so I can't really hang Aukerman for it. 


Usually, when I select something to listen to and it has the word "Comedy" in the title, I’m leery about actual the actual comedic content in the same way that I doubt a place called "tasty food".  Funny folks don’t usually have to title their projects with words like funny or comedy. So I went into CDR with a little chip on my shoulder and expecting disappointment. I listened to three shows (my minimum for a review). Show 35 with Patton Oswalt, Thomas Lennon and Brett Gelman, Show 21 with Chris Hardwick, Charlyne Yi and Seth Morris, and Show 2 with Aziz Ansari and Kevin Nealon.  All 3 shows were funny and engaging (except that Charlyne Yi was kinda odd, maybe stoned of just not my flavor of weird).  But, I was left wishing that it had been, oh, I don't know,... more.  It was like ordering desert in a restaurant known for really good deserts.  It comes to the table, looks great, has all the right parts to make it perfect.  There's room in my stomach for more food, I'm in the mood for desert and I eat it with gusto.  But when I'm done, it was just a desert.  Is that a shortcoming with me or the show?  Hard to say. CDR Podcast has all of the right cream and chocolate jimmies in the right places.  The crust is well made and the filling is professionally created.  But I've eaten truly spactacular deserts before and I was hoping for more.


My rating scale
Is this podcast entertaining? - Yes, I admit it, I was entertained
Am I likely to listen to the next podcast? – I have more, I'll probably listen
Do I recommend this podcast to friends? – I guardedly mentioned it to one friend