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

The Podiwan Review 5 – Nerdist

The totally plugged in and constantly available on every podcast known to man nerdist himself, Chris Hardwick ( @nerdist ) is a charming host and an expert snark. He knows everybody in the business including Weird Al Yankovic @alyankovic and Thomas Lennon @thomaslennon (Officer Dangle from Reno 911) and, 'get of gets', he got Stan Lee on a recent podcast doing a Q & A at the NAB in Las Vegas. He does especially well with quick witted people whose minds are razor sharp and amphetamine fast and willing to go way down the path to make a premise pay off. EPs run about an hour and are sitting in the living room comfortable with one or two guests.

True to Nerdist ideals the talk centers on tech but quickly devolves to comedy, popular culture, food, pitch meetings and the issues of writing comedy. My favorite episode was Adam Savage @donttrythis from the Mythbusters TV show. This EP was done in front of a live audience (at UCB, I think) and Savage did his first ever stand up and killed. I was never not interested. Least favorite was the Muppets. It seemed staged (duh) and lacked the rapier repartee that I enjoy most about Hardwick.  However, it was interesting enough to listen to all the way through.

Hardwick also tours doing stand up, recently opening for Joel McHale (the Soup). There are days when the nerdist earns the Explicit warning label at iTunes willingly using marine style language to bludgeon the conversational subject into submission, but mostly, his command of the language allows him to work only slightly blue. He’s a sharp guy and the podcast educates and challenges the listener.  Then, as a payoff for the work, it also makes you laugh.

There are only 14 podcasts in the library at this point, but the venture is new and a fresh podcast goes up every week. Sometimes there's an extra bonus podcast.  All EPs are available at iTunes and on the Nerdist website.




My rating scale
Is this podcast entertaining? - Yes
Am I likely to listen to the next podcast? – Yes
Do I recommend this podcast to friends? – Regularly