I'm A Comedy Podcaddict and I'm Proud of it

Over the course of the last few years, the staggering amount of growth within the medium of podcasting has given me a new addiction. All together, I think I subscribe to 25 podcasts, mostly all comedy related. If you, like myself, have a job that involves lots of sitting at a desk, if you listen to your iPod while you work out, or you have a long commute to work, I highly suggest you get hip to the dip, A.S.A.-muthafuckin-P.

There are so many to chose from it's ridiculous. I don't want to show preference towards one over the other so I'll just list and briefly describe all of the ones that I would recommend to a first-time podcaster.

1. Comedy Death-Ray Radio : A podcast based on a live show at the UCB Theater in Los Angeles, this podcast is hosted by Alternative Comedy Guru and all around genius, Scott Aukerman. Each week he has a new set of guests and almost always, there is a person who plays a character for the duration of their appearance; i.e. Nick Kroll, James Adomian, Seth Morris, Andy Daly). I'm an avid fan of this podcast and I would find it to be a daunting task to find anything negative to say about it. It's almost 100 percent improv-based, they often feature in studio musical guests, now that they run out of Ear Wolf Studios, and it is a sure-fire guarantee to get you into laughing fits so intense, you'll have to pull over your car off of the highway, just to not kill everyone around you. (Speaking from personal experience, there). It's also the founding podcast of the newly-formed Ear Wolf Podcasting Network.

2. Comedy and Everything Else - Hosted by Jimmy Dore and Stephanie Zamorano, this is one of the longest running podcasts in the history of the medium. Every Monday, a new episode is posted and sometimes, if not all the time, it features a guest who sits in with them for the majority of their show. This is a great podcast for comedy fans who like to hear working comedians discuss the machinations and perspective of a Stand-Up, in regards to how to properly run a venue, how to work a crowd, and basically gives the listeners great tips on how to grow as a comedian. They also discuss topical issues and things that they feel deserve attention in the media and within the comedy community. I highly suggest listening to the entire series of Kyle Cease episodes, including the Matt Besser episode. Personally, this is my favorite podcast to listen to from start to finish, simply because Jimmy is constantly giving great advice to those who want to be comedians, themselves.

3. Doug Loves Movies - Hosted by Doug Benson, this is probably my favorite podcast to listen to while I'm at work. Every week a set of 3 guests and Doug discuss movies, new or otherwise, and a lot of the times, they just riff off of each other about whatever they feel like until Doug remembers to start playing movie-based games. The games they play are relatively simple and yet equally as addictive once you get the hang of them.
One is called "Build A Title" where, either Doug or a guest of his choosing, will name a movie. Then, the other guests have to build on that movie title, using either the first word as the last word in the chain, or the last word as the first word of the new movie in the chain. An example would be: Heat, then Body Heat, that could then be Jennifer's Body Heat, and so on and so forth. His most popular game, by far, is the Leonard Maltin Game. This is essentially a version of "Name that Tune", but using the names of bottom-billed actors instead of notes in sequence. It's a great game to listen to and an even better one if you're, like me, a walking IMDB and end up yelling at my laptop every time a contestant can't come up with the answer. The guests all play for audience members and the winner garners their audience member prizes if they win. The losers get to name a "Shit Head" at the end of the show that Doug announces as the show ends.
It's an immensely fun podcast and I highly recommend it to movie buffs, comedy nerds, and fans of hilarity in general.

4. WTF with Marc Maron - Far and away, this is the best example of a Litmus Test for any first-time podcast listener. If you can handle Marc Maron's brutaly honesty, unrelentingly introspective, and constantly self-deprecating nature, you are ready for the world that is podcasting, on a whole. His neurosis is a metaphor for the current state of the medium itself. Maron, who was previously most famous for his time spent on Air America Radio, started this podcast a little over a year ago and in that time, the show has grown into one of, if not the most popular comedy podcasts on the Internet. Deservedly so, as he always has great guests like Louie C.K. , Janeane Garofalo, and Patton Oswalt, and that's just to name a few. I recommend starting with his episodes with Nick Kroll as El Chupacabra. They'll have you on the floor with laughter. Not to mention, his interview skills are awesome, so his guest interview spots are, by my view, the best in the business.

5. Never Not Funny - The longest running American comedy podcast, Never Not Funny is the brain-child of comedian Jimmy Pardo and producer and entrepreneur, Matt Belknap. It's conversational, party-style, talky podcasting at its best. Every week they bring on guests like Scott Aukerman, Pat Francis, and my personal favorite re-occurring guest, Jon Hamm to help bring more life to each episode. Hamm is shockingly funny, given his uber-serious role on Mad Men and every time he makes an appearance on the show, his rapport with Jimmy Pardo is undeniable. The show is in its 7th season, moving into the 8th and they have 2 versions of the show: one free, twenty minute version, or a paid subscription version which normally runs about 90 minutes. It's worth paying the money, as each episode breaks down to pennies on the dollar and they also give you the option to pay for video of each episode as well.

6. Sklarbro Country - The newest addition to the Earwolf Network of podcasts, the show is hosted by brothers Randy and Jason Sklar. Each episode they discuss news topics, mainly dealing with sports and independent music. They have a guest on to do a brief interview, and they have several segments that they do each week, much like a traditional radio show. In addition to their regular guest, Chris Cox, who I admittedly don't know much about, plays a character every week and they close the show by doing a mock interview with a character of choosing. My personal favorites so far are Jerry Jones, Racist Vin Skully, and Tiger Woods.

7. The David Feldman Comedy Podcast - This one is for the older and or smarter crowd. Imagine if "Prairie Home Companion" was X-Rated and written by a bunch of old stand-up comedians. It's only about 30 minutes in length and has recently become a new addition to the KPFK Pacifica Radio line-up. This podcast is more sketch based, with interviews and guest appearances edited in-between and I find it to be some of the best comedy writing in the medium, as David Feldman is an Emmy-winning writer and also wrote for the Oscars. Frequent guests include Jim Earl and Eddie Pepitone. The Marc Maron and Greg Proops episodes are two of the best and most promising examples of how enjoyable podcasting can really be.

8. The Longshot Podcast - Hosted by the quartet of Sean Conroy, Amber Kenny, Eddie Pepitone, and Jamie Flam...wait no, Floom....I mean Flint..shit..what is it?!...um..FLAMINGO! Thats it. Jamie Flamingo. (listen to an episode and you'll get the joke) This is another conversational comedy podcast, loosely based around a core idea for each episode; i.e. "Footy Pajamas" or "Love", which they rarely stick to and usually just riff off of each other. Sean Conroy, to me, is one of the most consistently under-rated writer/comedian/improv performers in the comedy community and I'm glad to see he's found his stride with this podcast. Add to his dry, sardonic humor, the rantings and musings of the bitter Buddha himself, Eddie Pepitone, and you got yourself a great combination. All four of the hosts have such great chemistry together and I really enjoy the fact two of the hosts, I've gotten to be familiar with via the podcast and not from projects they'd been apart of previously.
To address that previous statement, Jamie and Amber are the two that I feel are the least known of the four hosts and as far as I know, Amber is part of an Improv group, of which their name escapes me (sorry, Amber); and Jamie is a Stand-Up and a (true story) former winning contestant on Singled Out. (Again, sorry Jamie I should know more about the two of you). Put them all together and you got one funny podcast.

9. The Nerdist Podcast - Hosted by Chris Hardwick, former host of MTV's Singled Out, frequent guest of G4's popular Attack of the Show, and current host of G4's Web Soup, the man is getting around. His co-hosts Jonah Ray and Matt Myra are usually present, minus any one-off interview Chris does on his own, always provide a great chemistry together with Chris. This really is a podcast for the Nerds, though. If you can't follow their bank of Back to the Future references and call backs to jokes about Binary Code, you may find yourself a bit intimidated by their bevy of pop-culture and technological knowledge. Be not afraid nor deterred from listening, though, as they have some of the best guests of any podcast on the Internet. Plus they're fucking hilarious, so that helps, too.
Much like Comedy and Everything Else, I love listening to this podcast because they have zero problems with talking inside-baseball about what it is to be a comedian, how to come up as a comedian, and how styles evolve on a daily basis. For a first timer, I'd recommend the Jim Gaffigan episode. It's a picture-perfect example of what I'm talking about. The depth in which Gaffigan goes into describing his development as a comedian, to me, is invaluable information as a comedy writer and shitty open mic-er.

10. The Monday Morning Podcast with Bill Burr - Bill Burr, along with the guys at Never Not Funny and Comedy and Everything Else, has been at this podcast thing for quite some time now. From the days of ranting into his cell phone and posting it online, to recording with professional equipment in his apartment, I have loved listening to him rant about WHATEVER for almost 2 years now. Bill Burr is the kind of guy you could talk to about conspiracy theories for DAYS and he'd crack you up the entire time. The show is just an hour of straight-up rant style podcasting, just him and his microphone. He recommends viral videos, he reads listener emails, and names a "Douche Bag of the Week" each episode. All of those segments are hilarious. This is a podcast for people with thick skin and a great sense of humor. He usually says things that are assured to offend SOMEBODY, on some level, every single time a new episode goes up.


Since I've rattled off 10 of these things (and that was in no way in sequential order of preference), I'm just going to list some other podcasts that I bet you'd enjoy:

The Pod F. Tompkast - Paul F. Tompkins new monthly podcast. Episodes are released on the 1st of each month. Each episode features character-driven skits, snippets from his live monthly show, and a healthy dose of Tompkin-esque train-of-thought comedy.

Comedy Film Nerds - Graham Elwood and Chris Mancini discuss movies, mostly ones in theaters and those coming out on DVD that week. I love listening to it simply because every once and a while Graham goes OFF on mainstream Hollywood and usually challenges someone like Michael Bay to a karate fight.

Proudly Resents - A podcast devoted to trashing shitty movies. Enough said.

SModCast - Kevin Smith and Scott Mossier host a rant-heavy, opinion-based, conversational podcast. It's as blue as the sky and as long as Lexington Steele's Cock. Great for killing 2 plus hours.

The Dork Forest - Hosted by Comedian Jackie Kashian, this is a weekly podcast that covers all things dorky. Audiophiles beware: the sound quality is...to be nice...very bad.

I hope this list helps you get your act together and finally get on the podcast bandwagon. It's better than radio and completely is endless in what it is capable of. It's an old-timey radio revival, only this time the technology is a little more sophisticated.