In Pod We Trust: five podcasts to which I am addicted (entries 1-3)

Commercial radio is deader than Marconi, and so those of us who listened to the medium all our lives have three options: listener-sponsored stations, satellite radio, and podcasts. In NYC, the first option has never come in on portable radios (“college radio” signals have never had enough strength; NPR is informative, but more often than not makes me doze). The second is a manifestation of the “niche” factor in American culture (hide the good stuff in niches that cost dough, while the mainstream garbage is free). And thus a few years ago I moved to the third option, which is thoroughly dependent on you knowing that the show exists.

Like trees in the forest, a veritable swarm of podcasts compete for your time and attention (and in some cases, for your dollars), but you could easily overlook the best ones on the journey to read another bite-sized piece of text on the Net. Since this past weekend I turned “another year older and deeper in debt,” I figured my gift to you, the reader of this blog, would be a short discussion of the five podcasts I most eagerly await. Four of them I’ve written about before on this blog; only two charge a subscription fee, and both of those have ample archives of older material available for free. Four of the five hosts began on radio, and all of the programs have their own individual charms and addictive qualities. I would've linked to the downloadable version of one of my favorite remaining radio programs, Idiot's Delight with Vin Scelsa, but that is available only as .asx files, which can't be carried around on an MP3 player.

1.) Lionel Media: Lionel, whom I wrote about here, is a former radio talk-show host who was on both liberal and conservative stations, and always seemed to stake out his own turf. His only book to date labeled him a “contrarian,” but I’d prefer calling him a skeptic, which, given the extremely bored yet dogmatic way in which Americans view both politics and religion, is a valuable thing.

If you want to sample what Lionel is like when he’s in his hyper-kinetic mode, check out his wonderful three-minute commentaries on local WPIX news. On his website, he currently offers an audio podcast on which he goes into depth on the same issues as the PIX commentaries, and also ponders a host of others.

Although I disagree with him on some issues, and there have been a few times when I’ve felt that 30-45 minutes would’ve sufficed on certain topics (his podcast usually runs an hour), the best episodes have found him carefully deconstructing some statement or action made by the government. That is when he is at his best as a “decoder” (his own term) of the mainstream media’s coverage (and blind acceptance) of the government’s pronouncements. My personal favorite episodes of the ’cast have been more personal ones, where Lionel (in perfect Henry Morgan mode) tells us about people who annoy the hell out of him. Examples of this from his WPIX commentaries are here and here.

Sometimes I do sense a slight “disconnect” between the high-energy commentator on TV and the soft-spoken podcaster, but in both roles Lionel is a talker who always forces his viewers/listeners to think about what’s going on around them. Plus, he’s extremely funny, especially when in an exasperated or annoyed mode.

Check out his WPIX commentaries on YouTube for an intro as to how the man’s mind works. I’m still surprised that a local news show is airing his radical (read: logical and well-argued) messages. He is well worth your time:



Available: Here
Price: $5.99 a month, but free “sample” episodes every few weeks
Frequency of podcast: 3-5 times a week.

2.) WTF With Marc Maron: Marc is the only podcaster on this list lucky enough to have commercial sponsors and to seemingly be making a profit from his Net-show. Ostensibly an interview show concerned with the world of comedy, I detailed in my last post about WTF how, pretty early on, the show started offering odd and fascinating “therapy sessions” for the comic figures interviewed.

I’m still not sure why the guests consent to talk in detail with Marc about their biggest fears, grimmest memories, and most tangled familial relationships, but it most definitely makes for a riveting listen. A few guests have indeed moved away from discussing anything too personal, and still others have acknowledged the fact that the show frequently goes in that direction (“I’m not gonna cry for you, Dr. Maron,” declared “the pitbull of comedy” Bobby Slayton).

As I mentioned last time, I have little to no interest in some of the people Marc has on (how many members of “The State” or “The UCB” can one honestly care about?). But it is a testament to his unique method of “sharing neuroses” and getting his guests to open up that I often wind up listening to these episodes anyway — developing a sympathy or simpatico for the individual, even though I still don’t find them funny or ever want to watch their work.

There are exceptions, though. While, for example, I already enjoyed the work of Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall) and standup Maria Bamford, and just wound up loving ’em a whole lot more after they opened up to Marc about their private lives (in minute detail), I found recent episodes (one posted today) with two major “name” comic personalities, Jimmy Fallon and Amy Poehler, to be shows one could avoid entirely. But I listened — yes, I listened, and have learned my lesson; I will spend no more time hearing reminiscences of SNL or UCB alumni. (Both institutions have crafted startling amounts of unfunny, unwatchable sketch comedy.)

Marc will frequently refer to the ghosts of Comedy Giants Past — Lenny, Pryor, Carlin, Hicks — and people who influenced the current generation of standups like Mitch Hedberg and Dave Attell (all of whom I enjoy very much). But one need only hear Fallon talk on WTF about Will Ferrell being the funniest man he’s ever met “in my entire life” and understand in a flash the “mediocritization” of American comedy. Steve Allen used to say Groucho was the most naturally funny man he’d ever met; Fallon points to Ferrell — why say more? (I've seen Fallon gush over top-notch British humorists like Chris Morris, the Pythons, and the Mighty Boosh elsewhere, but his taste in the American comedy of his own generation is as piss-poor as the "stupid human tricks" performed on his program.)

But I come to praise Marc, not to bury him with one of his more famous guests’ sadder statements. The single best example of what Maron is capable of with WTF was a recent episode in which he interviewed a comic legend who still dwells among us, Jonathan Winters. The last time I saw Winters being interviewed it was on Jimmy Kimmel, where he did a rather dazzling bit of improvisational material as a deranged scoutmaster for boys who dressed his charges in little dresses and bonnets. As Winters went on, the routine was alternately hysterical and then not funny at all (the sign of true improv). Around the time he reached a wonderfully Faulkner-ian image that wasn’t funny at all but was still wonderfully haunting (a flood that sent all the little boys’ dresses downstream…), Kimmel stopped him cold and asked, “Can I speak to Jonathan?” thereby ending the routine for good, and proving that however friendly and nice Jimmy K. is, he hasn’t the foggiest when it comes to playing straight man to the comic Force of Nature that is Jon W.

By comparison, Maron let the now-85-year-old Jonathan simply wail at points during their interview. Winters talks much slower now, but his mind still fires on all cylinders, and around the 1:05 mark of the interview — after having discussed his stays in mental institutions and his grim relations with his parents — Jonathan started riffing. What came out was a dark piece in which he played both a wimpering patient and his stern psychologist. The latter is so fed up with their sessions and his patient’s spinelessness that he begins to urge him to commit suicide, in graphic detail. The bit has no punchline, but it is Winters at his best, and it is incredibly dark (bringing to mind the much-circulated “Hee-Hee-Larious” unsigned party record that “JW” made made many years ago).

I would definitely love to hear Marc meet up in the future with more of the “old lions” of comedy who dwell on the West Coast, and continue to hold “therapy sessions” with his extremely tortured and very funny contemporaries. The talks with friendly but anemic (and boringly non-neurotic) sketch-comics aside, WTF remains a show for comedy fans to keep an eye on, if only to hear Marc “trauma-bond” with funny standups whose secrets and memories make for fascinating listening.

Available: Here
Price: Free, but a “premium membership” (with access to the older episodes) is available for $.99 for 1 month, $4.99 for 6 months, and $8.99 for a year.
Frequency of podcast: twice a week

3.) The Bitslap with KBC The NJ-based free-form radio station WFMU is a bastion of eclecticism that is listener-sponsored and, sadly, unable to be heard on any portable radio in NYC. Thus, the station’s podcasts provide a portable way to listen to the station, and the show I’m about to discuss can be heard only as a podcast.

Though he’s never been one of their “celebrity” DJs, a gent who simply goes by his initials has been on my short list of favorite air personalities since the dim, dark late Eighties. He left his regular berth on the station back in the 1990s (early? mid? I’m reaching the point where memories start to blend together….), but has been producing a weekly music podcast for the last two years for the WFMU website. It is mind-warpingly weird, and by that I mean wonderful.

KBC’s stated heroes on the program are Spike Jones, Stan Freberg, and the Firesign Theater, but there’s a lot more to his show than novelty tunes and “headphone comedy.” He cleverly blends rare singles with 78s and what are now called “deep album tracks” to create a mind-altering effect (without chemicals!) that calls to mind the best aspects of Sixties and Seventies free-form radio, as well as the strange vibe that permeated Seventies radio comedy (the best example being The National Lampoon Radio Hour).

He arranges most of the shows thematically and does a superb job of venturing down the “rabbit hole” of recorded comedy music to discover the catchiest, silliest, most hypnotic, and yes, at times even abrasive, music and vintage comedy sketches. The show is clearly a labor of love and, as an access producer, I can well understand KBC wanting to “give it all away.” (Remember, before YouTube, there were zines, public access and, most definitely, FM free-form radio.)

Check out KBC’s playlists to see the breadth of material he covers — and be sure that no one on the planet has a wider collection of rare, unique, and downright strange Xmas music than he does!

Available: Here
Price: absolutely free
Frequency of podcast: once a week

COMING UP: Two shows that have lengthier intervals between their episodes, but are well worth the wait!

Recommended interview podcast 2: WTF with Marc Maron

Comedians are either “on” or “off” during interviews. The perfect example was George Carlin — George would be in his revved-up, observational mode for his panel appearances with Carson, Leno, and Letterman; for quieter, non-late night shows, he generally was very quiet and introspective, never coming within a mile of a wisecrack.

Thus, depending on the outlet, comics will give one of two interviews. On the Marc Maron podcast WTF, however, a third option has come into being — that of the comic “on the couch,” delving into their insecurities, paranoias, and petty jealousies. It’s not clear exactly how this has developed, but Marc has surely become the podcasting “therapist” for his comedy colleagues.

Perhaps this is a result of the fact that Marc is not a professional interviewer. I first saw him as one of the million standups who inhabit the late, late hours on Comedy Central, but finally became familiar with him when he cohosted a morning show on Air America called “Morning Sedition.” When that show was axed, he floated around as a substitute host and was the cohost of the network’s only video podcast for a while.

I’ve written about AAR in the past, but suffice it to say that whoever put the network together had the rather wonky idea to pair standup comics or comedy writers with experienced radio people. Marc was teamed with Mark Riley, who continues to do a great job on WWRL-AM these days (6-8 p.m. weekdays). The morning show was fun when I caught it, but Marc’s subsequent hosting gigs found him veering away from political concerns and talking about himself at length. Thus was born the frame device of WTF, wherein he delivers a blog-like recap of what he’s been up to. This is not where the magic comes in.

That occurs when he begins to make the guests on his podcast feel at home by discussing a past meeting they had (with him frequently apologizing for how rude he was to the guest when he met them) or how they’ve been feeling lately (a leading question if ever there was one for people who make a living analyzing themselves in their work). Within a few minutes, the guest oddly consents to sharing information about the darkest times in their career or their lives. Depression, neurosis, breakdowns, incarceration, abuse by a significant other, a child’s life at risk in a hospital — somehow, Marc’s podcast has had all of these situations and more shared by comedians.

Which is not to say WTF is planned to be a therapy session — a good number of the episodes just end up going in that direction (certain guests, like Ray Romano, Stewart Lee, and Thomas Lennon, have seemingly kept it from going there). Perhaps it comes about because Marc overshares with the guest and will openly note if he is jealous of their success. Perhaps it comes about because Marc doesn’t explore the machinations of creating comedy but he does immediately leap into the machinations of the comedy lifestyle (traveling on the road, being booked to open or “middle,” dealing with audiences).

The podcast is thus ideal for both comedians and comedy fans because of its “shop talk” aspect. Marc has had a number of individuals on whose work I’m not a fan of (case in point: Judd Apatow), but his discussions with them have generally been more entertaining to me than their work is, because of this unintended “therapeutic” level of discussion.

And the show’s guest roster has gotten more and more impressive and expansive (the only missing element: the older troopers who are still alive in NYC and L.A., and would surely consent to interviews). WTF attracted the most attention when Marc has had “name” guests on and discussed “joke theft” with them. Again, because Marc is not a conventionally honed interviewer and is a comedian himself, he generally has the guts to ask questions that most other interviewers would gloss over.

I was very surprised to hear him raise the issue of stolen material with Robin Williams, who offered a very polite and sedate response to the question. He pursued the issue further with Carlos Mencia (in the two episodes that have brought the most attention to WTF) and Dane Cook — again, a performer I won’t spend a second listening to as a comic or actor, but if he has agreed to visit “Dr. Maron’s couch,” I’m all ears.

Marc is definitely an unconventional interviewer, and so his chats go into some very unconventional places, especially when he decides to document “healing” moments with old friends on tape for the podcast, rather than just let them happen “offstage” in real life. Thus, a few weeks ago, he tried to heal a rift that had grown between he and his old friend Louis C.K. (seen at right with Marc when both were much younger lads, along with Dave Attell and Sarah Silverman; the latter couple's relationship was gone into in much depth by Silverman recently on WTF). A related recommendation: Louis' FX show Louie, which debuted in 2010, was by far the darkest, best new American TV comedy to appear since Curb Your Enthusiasm, in my opinion.

The conversation, which spanned two episodes, was direct and honest, especially near the end when Marc once again confessed his envy of Louis’ recent professional accomplishments. Louis responded that when Marc was envious of him he was being a “really crappy friend” since he went through a divorce and a series cancellation while Marc was busy envying him. One can commend Maron for not editing this exchange out of the show, but a lot of what Marc does both on the podcast and in his standup has to do with being honest to a fault….

….which extends even to the “too much information” moments that littered the initial episodes of the ’cast, including an odd anecdote about Marc jerking off to porn on the computer while his ex-colleague Rachel Maddow was on TV. He humorously apologized on the podcast to Rachel for having turned off her show in favor of the porn, giving us yet another “fun fact” about him to try and quickly forget.

So what is the final point here? WTF is a completely unpredictable creation that can range from the truly mundane (Marc talking at length about how his new jeans and boots fit him) to the exceptional (the joke-theft discussions, a talk with Doug Stanhope and Janeane Garofalo where Marc introduced the phrase “children of Bill Hicks”). During the year-plus the show has been on, Maron has spotlighted comics I need to know better (including Brendon Burns), those whose work I forgot I liked a whole lot (Maria Bamford), and one energetic gent whose nonstop kvetches I do heartily enjoy (Eddie Pepitone). Catch WTF on iTunes and on its official site.

One of the few guests who actually has done shtick in Marc’s home studio, Nick Kroll as Latin DJ “El Chupacabra”:



WTF live with Maria Bamford:



And with Eddie Pepitone: