My Pod Week: Week ending 10/19/14

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!

BABY GENIUSES (Ep. 74- Pat Cassels/Eliza Skinner)

“Do you not like movies?” “I think I might not like movies.” Emily Heller has just seen Ghostbusters for the first time. Co-host Lisa Hanawalt grew up watching good flicks with her older brother and is shaken by Emily’s admission. “It’s such a bad feeling that I have right now.” Classic films never seen by Emily include The Godfather, The Empire Strikes Back, Citizen Kane, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Silence Of The Lambs, The Sixth Sense, The Shining, Vertigo, Jaws, and The Karate Kid. Fear of commitment to something that might not be good keeps her away from movies. Emily prefers the familiar characters and consistent levels of quality that come with television. “What should I do about this list? Should I start tackling it? It’s kind of a point of pride for me now.” “You should throw it away and never speak of it again.” Emily and Lisa were joined by writer Pat Cassels from CollegeHumor.com. During the wiki of the week segment they explored the case of a bank robber that used lemon juice on his face as a disguise. The poor fucker thought that because you can use lemon juice on white paper as invisible ink that it would make his stupid face invisible. He was wrong and went to prison. Pat told the story of Coke, New Coke, Classic Coke, and Crystal Pepsi. Pat knows a lot about the marketing and history of soft drinks, but could not confirm the rumors about Coca-Cola death squads keeping South American sugar flowing to American Coke holes. Culinary historian Kelsey Barnes (Skinner) stopped by to educate the group on pasta shapes. Barnes studied at Northwestern University but now works at Starbucks. Kelsey urges everyone to savor the eating of many different pasta shapes, but eating anything over four or five pieces is too much pasta. The origin of the many different pasta shapes is rooted in family. “Families would each have their own pasta shape, and that’s how you would know who had made the pasta.” Lisa asked “How do you feel about penis pasta, boob pasta?” “I feel like number one, you’re definitely gonna get a bad quality pasta.” She considers the novelty naughty parts a smack in the face to everyone in her field of study. Kelsey also explained the unfortunate beginnings of elbow macaroni. According to Barnes the elbow shape was inspired by smashed arms of people beaten during the Florentine riots. The 18th century Vatican riots are to thank for Angel Hair pasta. This super sad history lesson will make you weep into your never ending pasta bowl at the Olive Garden and your salty tears will commingle with the salty tears from the person in the kitchen that made it. Children died as a result of being used as human shields, and the pasta is tribute pasta. I found this episode of Baby Geniuses to be delectable, deeply sorrowful, kinda informative, and great fun.

I AM RAPAPORT (Episode 5)

“A world wide fuck’n phenomenon” brought to you by actor Michael Rapaport. People in New Zealand, France, North and South Korea, and the Dakotas are tuning in to hear what Rapaport has to say. ”Mutha fuckers are going crazy all over the world.” He appreciates the attention and loves doing the podcast. Michael started the episode with a confession. He bought himself an expensive pair of cashmere sweatpants. Rapaport’s announcement and critique of his new Ron Herman sweatpants was made public in an effort to beat Kanye West to the punch “Because this is some Kanye Shit.” He loves the comfort of his new pants so much that he is willing to make a public proposition in order to book Ghostface Killah from the Wu-Tang Clan. “Ghostface Killah, if you come on this show, I will give you cashmere sweatpants.” To me Rapaport will always be Murray “Superboy” Babitch from the 1997 movie Cop Land. He stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a crime drama hall of fame cast including Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, and Sylvester Stallone. He pays tribute to his legendary costar in the Scene Of The Week segment of the podcast. Rapaport was only six when his older sister took him to see Rocky and the movie had a profound effect on him.The seven-minute scene when Micky shows up unannounced offering to train Balboa for the big fight is a masterpiece and one of the most subtle and artful performances in the amazing career of Burgess Meredith. He remembers Stallone being tremendously generous with him on the set of Cop Land, indulging all of his Rocky-related questions. Rapaport promises that his experience working on Cop Land is a topic for an episode of its own that I hope is coming soon. He is one of those actors that seems to be working constantly and I’m glad that Michael Rapaport has added a podcast to his busy schedule. I found another great show for my regular rotation.

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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