The comedy podcast universe is ever expanding, not unlike the universe universe. We’re here to make it a bit smaller, a bit more manageable. There are a lot of great shows and each has a lot of great episodes, so we want to highlight the exceptional, the noteworthy. Each week our crack team of podcast enthusiasts and specialists and especially enthusiastic people will pick their favorites. We hope to have your ears permanently plugged with the best in aural comedy.
Comedy Bang! Bang! 2016 Tour - May 15 Gramercy Theater (7pm)
Mark: If you’ve been on social media at all over the past few weeks, you know that Comedy Bang Bang pals Scott Aukerman, Paul F. Tompkins, Lauren Lapkus, and the two-headed monster of Neil Campbell and Mike Hanford have been doing live tapings across the country. I was lucky enough to attend one of these in NYC at the Gramercy Theatre on Sunday 5/15. The air of mystery around who the guest would be dissolved as I walked in behind Bobby Moynihan, orphan Fourvel costume in hand, so I knew this was going to be a stabby one (glad Gramercy Theatre employees didn’t grab any of his knives, despite a thorough bag search). Aukerman nabbed quite the opener, as legendary New Yorker John Lennon (Hanford) tried his hand at standup and even wrote an original song about an audience member. Founding member of the Sugar Hill Gang Cal Solomon (PFT), mystic Harmony Moonglass (Lapkus) and Fourvel rap battled their way through a delightful show. Fourvel’s sneaky stage entrance and ensuing struggle to pull the knives out of his pocket to threaten the other guests were sights to be seen in person. Tours like these don’t come often for CBB, so grab tickets if you’re in any of these remaining cities. [Only available on Howl]
How Was Your Week - You’ve Got Bubble Tea
Leigh: If you listen carefully, you’ll hear the faint sounds of people in the distance cheering that after six long months, Julie Klausner is back with a new episode of How Was Your Week! In those six months, so many things happened in the world that made me wish we had gotten a new episode, just to hear Klausner’s reactions. Take for instance, the Met Gala. We all had to live through that without a new HWYW. It was hard, but lucky for us, Klausner backtracks a few weeks and shares her take on where everyone went wrong interpreting that theme. In fact, she’s got a lot to fill us in on. Like a very comprehensive review of American Psycho on Broadway, what guest stars we’ll get to see this season on Difficult People, America’s favorite normcore medley, what to make of Kat Von D dating Steve-O, the deal with pears, all the shitty things Breakfast at Tiffany’s inspired, and a brilliant response to some anti-circumcision Bernie Bros. There’s no guest this week, instead we get an interview with the late Michelle McNamara from a 2011 episode. Let us all pray this one episode isn’t just a fluke and we’ll get more episodes of HWYW soon, but we can’t get too greedy since we are getting more Julie Klausner soon enough once Difficult People comes back in July. [iTunes]
My Brother, My Brother and Me - Toot Me to Cabo
Kathryn: Eurovision is the latest in a long line of all-but-worldwide sensations like soccer or smallpox making their way to American shores embarrassingly late. This week, 60 years in, the annual international TV song competition was finally broadcast in the US. Though I didn’t watch it, and have no plans to in the future, I’ll happily listen to Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy describe a woman wearing a dress made out of crystals and light doing a Final Fantasy summons onstage. Podcasts might be more popular in the US than elsewhere in the world because they offer a way to sit motionless and hear about an experience without actually having one, be it watching a movie or tuning in to an event or speaking to a person, which appeals to another long American tradition: laziness. Is this true? It could be, but I’d have to get up from this chair to find out. In the meantime, the brothers offer advice on other problems you can only have in the Land of Liberty, like when a park has too many geese or your classmates levy a tax on your farts. [iTunes]
Let’s Chat! with Revill and Friends - Michael Price
Marc: If you ever wanted to have conversations with people you like, admire, or are just plain curious about, start a podcast! That’s kind of the feel of Let’s Chat! with Revill and Friends, from the construction of the title with the “!” popping up in the middle to the homebrewed feel of the way the host, Chris Revill, goes through his opening comments, and on through the Skypely-flat quality of the interview with guest Michael Price. Booming into Podcastland from Rhode Island, this episode of Let’s Chat! is brimming with fanboy energy as Revill makes his early morning call to Hollywood writer Price. And Price is an amazingly giddy and engaging guest, considering it’s about 7:00am his time when the call happens. Currently the co-creator along with Bill Burr on the Netflix-anchored F Is For Family animated series, Price has a long and interesting live-action and animation pedigree, starting with sketch show The Newz and Ahh! Real Monsters in 1994 through interesting curiosities like Teen Angel and Homeboys in Outer Space to the Lego Star Wars movie and multiple seasons on The Simpsons. Host Revill basks in his own nostalgia as his guest talks about specific episodes of some of his early works and the listener can’t help but be vicariously transported back to their own childhood a bit. And at points where Revill’s guest research seems to have failed him, Price seems not the least put out at filling in some of the gaps in his writing and production credits. At this point in podcasting there are plenty of slick talk shows out there, but what Let’s Chat! might lack in sounding “pro” it more than makes up for in the host’s pleasure in being able to bring us his latest conversation. [iTunes]
Bullseye with Jesse Thorn - Maria Bamford and Wanda Sykes
Anna Faris Is Unqualified - Chelsea Handler Part 1
High and Mighty - Dead Dads w/Justin Tyler
Black Men Can’t Jump in Hollywood - Dope
The Late Show Podcast - Tonight’s Watch: S6E3 - Oathbreaker
The Todd Barry Podcast - Ronny Chieng
Just One More! with Joanna and Daphnie - Listener Questions
Pistol Shrimps Radio - Colin Hanks
Got a podcast recommendation? Drop us a line at podcasts@splitsider.com.
Leigh Cesiro is a writer living in Brooklyn who only needs 10 minutes to solve any Law & Order: SVU episode.
Mark Kramer is a writer, comedian & human boy from Staten Island, New York, but please don’t hold that against him.
Kathryn Doyle is a science writer from New York.
Marc Hershon is host of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast and author of I Hate People!
