My Pod Week: Week ending 6/1/14

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!

MOHR STORIES (232: Dave Attell)

In August 2001, Insomniac with Dave Attell premiered on Comedy Central and I thought to myself, “Finally, a show for the heavy drinker that doesn’t like to go out.” I cracked a beer, then the seal on a fifth of Old Crow, and sat down with a bag of pistachios. This went on ’til November 2004. Dave was my virtual reality drinking buddy. Now, I’m sure there’s an app for that. When he was finished drinking all over the world he came back with an updated version of The Gong Show, and then in 2011 Dave’s Old Porn premiered on Showtime, a hairy tribute to the loving bush of yesteryear that featured retired “stars” and some of his comedian friends. Here we are in 2014 and he’s back again with a new one-hour special called Dave Attell: Road Work. It’s available for download now on comedycentral.com. His new show Comedy Underground is like a spin-off to all of your favorite Attell incarnations. It features fellow comics that don’t hold back on salty language. Jay Mohr got the details on Dave’s new show and how it came to be. It has a unique look for a stand-up comedy show — they shoot with handheld cameras and even the guy at the front table becomes a cameraman. Jay asked about the volunteer work that Dave has been involved with over the years. He’s toured with the USO several times but the charity that he works with currently is Operation Purple, for children of veterans. Dave and Jay worked together at Saturday Night Live. Dave auditioned to be a cast member but they took him as a writer, while Jay was hired as a featured player and desperately tried to produce sketches that would get him screen time. They covered working with Lorne Michaels, the Harvard writing team, and running for your life from Chris Farley. Jay chronicled these events in his book “Gasping for Airtime: Two Years in the Trenches of Saturday Night Live.” It’s a book that I really enjoyed and the backstage accounts make it a must read for die hard SNL fans. At the 56:20 mark, Dave talks about Bill Hicks, the comic that he wanted to be during those years at SNL. Bill Hicks passed away 20 years ago at the age of 32. When the news made its way to SNL, it didn’t seem to register with many of Attell’s co-workers and the pace didn’t slow down even for a second. He felt it. “Why are we still working? This is like our Kennedy assassination.”

WE KNOW NOTHING PODCAST (Episode 7)

Nikki Glaser and Phil Hanley have a new podcast. The show starts with Nikki preparing for a late-night talk show appearance and dealing with producers who are in charge of what’s funny and what’s deemed offensive to all social groups. Who are these people? Former meter maids that didn’t have the math skills to become IRS auditors? Glaser is open about the tremendous amount of pressure involved in the process, how it diminished her confidence, and made her want to quit. Lucky for us she called Amy Schumer and was talked out of a sudden career change. Phil can relate having braved a few late-night appearances himself. While doing a little research I found a quick but great interview with Phil right here on thecomicscomic.com. In order to do some emergency joke doctoring Nikki spent the better part of the week researching porn. Having a Ph.D on the subject myself I found her summations eloquent and her appraisals astute. Phil and Nikki also discuss the many hurdles involved with flirting, cheaters and cheating, and long distance love. The show ends with some very candid details about Nikki’s relationship at the 36:49 mark. The amount of real communication she describes might bring you to a “Oh, I’ve been doing this wrong the whole time, haven’t I” moment. Glaser admitted to feeling secure enough to possibly sanction extracurricular activities for her boyfriend, “It’s only sex.” She may have found the key to the rusted padlock called the male psyche, so let’s join together as men, hold hands in a giant circle, and pray that she writes a book that becomes endorsed by Oprah and our lives are forever changed. Amen.

WALKING THE ROOM WITH GREG BEHRENDT and DAVE ANTHONY (#199 – Patton Oswalt)

This week comedian Patton Oswalt stepped in for Walking The Room co-host Greg Behrendt who is currently on tour in Australia. In 2004, Greg and former Sex and the City writer Liz Tuccillo co-authored the New York Times bestseller “He’s Just Not That Into You,” which was later made into a film of the same name. Greg’s podcast partner Dave Anthony is a writer and actor on the second season of Maron, Thursday nights at 10/9c on IFC. Patton and Dave poke fun at a few of their peers and speak on current events at the top of the show. At 36:45, dog talk kicks in. Patton shares the slow and painful demise of what is nature’s worst designed animal, the French Bulldog. He has one himself and loves it enough to put it through behavior therapy. According to Patton, French Bulldogs were popular with French prostitutes in the late 1800’s, can smell syphilis, and write tragic poems about it. Oswalt laments, “When you buy a French bulldog you buy a huge tragedy.”

*Remember to take a second and subscribe to the podcasts that you like on iTunes, leave a review, and click the stars. It’s your civic duty!

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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