My Pod Week: Week ending 6/8/14

Mike Flinn (@realmikeflinn) isn’t just a podcast producer and engineer; he’s also an avid fan of the form. “My Pod Week” recaps and reviews the many varied comedy podcasts Flinn listened to or attended live tapings of during the previous week. Enjoy!

GETTING DOUG WITH HIGH (Episode 34: Todd Glass and Morgan Murphy)

If you know just how much Doug Benson loves movies, then you absolutely know how much Doug Benson loves marijuana. Doug’s following is a loyal following. Drive down Franklin here in Los Angeles when his fans are waiting for another Doug Loves Movies at the UCB theatre, you’ll see the line stretch down the street and around the corner. Getting Doug With High is live streaming video that later becomes available for download in podcast form. This show makes me feel like the future is really here now. I can turn on my TV, open the YouTube app at 4:15 p,m. on a Wednesday, and watch some of my favorite comedians smoke out and speak completely uncensored. What is this, Europe!? When I was a kid listening to Sam Kinison on cassette I knew the kind of world that I wanted to live in as an adult, and this is part of it. The other part was gonna involve Kelly LeBrock from Weird Science. Anyway, the show opens with Doug and the guests selecting a pipe or device from the table and Doug reads a review from Leafly.com about the weed that will be smoked on the show. This episode Morgan Murphy and Todd Glass enjoyed the energizing enhancements of Green Crack. In the interest of “journalistic integrity,” I subjected myself to this strain and found it lively to the point of elation. This was the first appearance for Morgan and the third for Todd. Morgan is currently a writer on the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls and released a stand-up album earlier this year called Irish Goodbye. I just wrote about Todd’s podcast The Todd Glass Show two weeks ago, so if you didn’t see it click here. The highlight of this episode for me came at the 38:20 mark, when Doug presented a challenge: “Todd, here’s the game, you lose if you talk.” Benson had no problem interviewing Morgan and simultaneously torturing Todd by talking about him when he couldn’t interject. I liked watching Todd’s face contort while Doug and Morgan discussed their upcoming New York performances. This show even has its own magician, Gabe Dylan. Softspoken and mellow Gabe is the complete opposite of what I think of when I think of a magician. His tricks are solid and fit perfectly into the fun casual vibe of the show.

THIS FEELS TERRIBLE with ERIN McGATHY (62 – Live From Bridgetown ’14)

This episode was recorded at last month’s Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland, Ore. Host Erin McGathy starts by talking about getting a little caught up in celebration and taking a spontaneous mushroom trip. A minor freakout ensued, but the only real damage done was in chalk on her hotel room door and calling her fiance Dan Harmon from the Harmontown podcast “a monster.” They hugged it out in the morning and true love prevailed. As mushroom trip disasters go, this one comes in at a -10. Erin is joined by Reggie Watts from Comedy Bang! Bang! (IFC) and comedian Mary Van Note. I saw Mary perform years ago in the age of MySpace, in the back of a warehouse in one of the less than scenic parts of Oakland, Calif. The other comedians were Brent Weinbach, Arj Barker and Patton Oswalt. I don’t know how long she’d been performing at that point, but out of that great lineup on a strange afternoon, her spot was the most memorable. Mary admitted to once getting her boyfriend’s initials tattooed on her body, resulting in an immediate break-up. I’m glad she can laugh about it now. Reggie talked about being single for nine years while he traveled and worked on his career, a new science-fiction concept that he’s been pitching, and working with Carol Burnett in his first New York theater piece.

https://www.castmate.fm:8080/t/h/i/thisfeelsterrible/TFT%2062%20MAIN%20Live%20From%20Bridgetown.mp3

GILBERT GOTTFRIED’s AMAZING COLOSSAL PODCAST (#1: Dick Cavett)

Dick Cavett has hosted his own talk show in various formats since 1968. Gilbert Gottfried could not have picked a better guest to launch his podcast. Cavett and Gottfried swap stories about Hollywood legends. At 49:25 Cavett tells the true story of losing a guest to the grim reaper during a show in 1971. Jerome Rodale, the publisher of Today’s Health Magazine, had just finished telling Dick that he planned to live to 100. He was 72, and things don’t always work out the way we plan. Gilbert and Dick seem to have an impression to go with every story. Maybe you’ve heard Gilbert’s talk show version of “old” Groucho Marx on The Howard Stern Show. Cavett paints a picture of a lonely Groucho that was exploited and manipulated by his mentally unstable companion and “secretary.” Things didn’t end well for her. Comedy writer co-host Frank Santopadre tosses fuel on the fire and it quickly becomes obvious that these three guys could talk all night.

Mike Flinn is a podcast producer/engineer based in West Hollywood, Calif., for All Things Comedy. The views expressed in My Pod Week are purely his own.

Mike Flinn

After a brief and unsuccessful attempt at a conventional education Mike Flinn started a band in his hometown of San Diego, CA. In 1998 he moved to the San Francisco Bay area and founded Back From Booze Hell zine. It was a collaborative effort dispensing equal doses of pop culture and prose, and made it's way into independent bookstores in the Bay Area, New York, and Los Angeles. Playing in bars and self publishing did not pay the bills. I held, I mean Flinn held many jobs during those years, most of them in warehouses. Like Bukowski without the talent. At some point Flinn walked off the job at Costco, breaking his mothers heart. Things get a little "hazy" around this time. He was an actor for a few years and then went back to songwriting and performing. Let's just skip ahead. When not playing with his iPhone or on a trip to Trader Joe's to pick up salads you'll find him watching live comedy in Los Angeles, recording podcasts, and writing.

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