My Pod Week: Week ending 9/28/14, live from the LA PodFest!

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!

This past weekend, Flinn took in the Los Angeles Podcast Festival! He shared his aural travels with The Comic’s Comic in this online diary.

FRIDAY

5:45 p.m. — Walking out to my car I see helicopters hovering in the distance over Sunset Boulevard. They appear to be just off the northern edge of my flight path to La Cienega Boulevard. “This can’t be good.” The radio says that a 120-year-old water main has broken in front of The Comedy Store. The LAPD reopen Fountain just in time for me to squeeze my way past the river of chaos that is West Hollywood and make my way down to the Sofitel Hotel for the Festival.

6:30 p.m. — A cool breeze is blowing through the outdoor patio during the welcome reception. I’m in a social situation here and I’m alone. I’m looking for any familiar face and I see lots of my favorite podcasters but zero people that I actually know. Enter gin and tonic. As I start to calm my nerves I bump into actor, writer, comedian, and podcast festival organizer Dave Anthony. In addition to Walking The Room with Greg Behrendt, Dave does a podcast called The Dollop with Gareth Reynolds. He tells me that The Dollop is doing well in Australia and that he has to get going. Next I had  a “stop ‘n’ chat” on Graham Elwood and Chris Mancini from the Comedy Film Nerds podcast. They started The Los Angeles Podcast Festival with Dave Anthony and Andy Wood, director and co-founder of Portland’s Bridgetown Comedy Festival. Chris and Graham were very friendly and welcoming.

6:40 p.m. — I have a general distrust of hors d’oeuvres so I ate a Cliff bar in a bathroom that was larger than my apartment.

aisha

7:05 p.m. — The CrabFeast with Ryan Sickler and Jay Larson is under way. Aisha Tyler sips a cocktail and tells some stories about growing up in San Francisco, being on stage with The Roots, and abusing Larson backstage before the show. Ryan and Jay are like elite quarterbacks. It was just completion after completion, these two are fast and accurate. The second guest was Al Madrigal from The Daily Show and About A Boy. Al told us about some family history that involved a machete. That’s all I can say. Watch for this episode to hit iTunes and then download it. Trust me.

8:44 p.m. — A LOUD fight breaks out between a man and a woman in the hallway. I think security got involved. By the time the guy slapped the hat off of her head I was on the other side of the hotel avoiding conflict. “Go get your hat bitch!”

9:30 p.m. — I’m watching Girl On Guy host Aisha Tyler interview Marc Maron. This is really amazing to be here now.

9:45 p.m. — I wanted to check out Sam Tripoli and The Naughty Show so I sneak out of Girl On Guy long enough to see Graham Elwood and Gareth Reynolds do a Bane impersonation rap battle. Then Clownvis sang the theme to Reading Rainbow complete with F-bombs. I must have missed some sexy segments as the stage was littered with dildos and popcorn.

10:04 p.m. — Maron is telling a story about meeting a not-yet-famous Russell Crowe and bombing onstage bad enough to get him fired off a tour. His talk with Aisha covered a lot of ground and Marc talked a little about the re-airing of his WTF episode with Robin Williams after his sudden death. “There was a huge struggling personality there.”

SATURDAY

12:15 p.m. — I couldn’t sleep last night as predicted. The 40-Year-Old-Boy podcast host Mike Schmidt is waking me up. Turns out we both suffer from Wandering Tooth Syndrome.

12:30 p.m. — Superego is on. The room is packed and hot. With no available chairs in sight I kneel down and l remind myself of Tim Conway’s Dorf character. Watching Superego perform is like watching a good rock band. Mid-performance, they can share unspoken sentences with each other through facial expressions.

1:53 p.m. — Some girl just walked past me in those shoes with the toes.

2:06 p.m. — Who Charted? with Howard Kremer and Kulap Vilaysack were joined by Matt Jones. Matt was Badger on Breaking Bad. Finally seeing this podcast live was a festival highlight for me. Howard sang a few of his hits as the charts were counted down. Someone gave him a pair of socks with sharks on them.

2:45 p.m. — Aisha Tyler and former New Kid On The Block Joey McIntyre joined Comedy Film Nerds. Aisha loves a good action flick. The first Matrix movie made her want to drive her car on two wheels. “Sometimes you just want to see shit blow up!”

4:35 p.m. — The Dana Gould Hour featured Steve Agee, Tom Kenny, and John Ennis. Gould and Ennis expose the grim side of growing up in Boston as Johnny Condon and Robbie Sullivan.
“So I went to see my father”
“Yeah, how is he?”
“He’s got one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. His stroke has cancer.” They paint Massachusetts pessimism in shades of nicotine stain.

6:06 p.m. — Fatigue is setting in. I’ll head to the lounge to down as much caffeine as possible.

7:10 p.m. — A battalion of What The Fuckers celebrate Marc Maron’s 51st Birthday by singing to him after Dave Anthony brought up cupcakes with candles. WTF guests were Whitney Cummings, Shelby Fero, Pamela Adlon, Amber Preston, and Desi Jedeikin. All were interesting, funny, and beyond candid even by WTF standards.

SUNDAY

1:30 p.m. — For Crying Out Loud hosts Stefanie Wilder-Taylor and Lynette Carolla talked parenting and breakfast battles at the Carolla house. I threw gas on the fire by asking about the nutritional value of Lynette’s stack of pancakes vs. Adam’s handful of nuts and an apple.

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2:30 p.m. – After 82 episodes April Richardson and her guest Jimmy Pardo bring Go Bayside to an end. No tribute to the early 90’s sitcom Saved By The Bell will ever top what April created. Hopefully she will be back with a new podcast soon.

7:20 p.m. — The Todd Glass Show was joined by James Adomian. James channels every downtrodden Walter Matthau character backed by live sad motel jazz. His improvised Johnny Cash Christmas special featured the unfortunate demise of Santa Claus. James also did a Todd impression that was then mimicked back at him by Todd creating an infinite loop of Todd Glass that threatened the integrity of space and time. A laughing demon child sound effect licked up the walls like flame.

9 p.m. to midnight — After party karaoke with a live band. I had a great time.

graham

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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