The Daily Grill

Podcast Review: No Pressure To Be Funny; Series 4, Episode 2

Dry and sarcastic or lewd and absurd — no matter how you slice it, I love British humor. And the lads behind the No Pressure To Be Funny podcast have concocted a winning combo of chat, monologues, music, and rants that delivers on all fronts. The brainchild of English comedians Nick Revell and Alistair Barrie, the show is fronted by LBC talk radio host James O’Brien. Performed before a live audience, each show features a different panel of guests every episode. Drawn from the arts, media, and politics, the crew for the latest outing includes Rob Grant, Simon Munnery, Kevin Day, and Polly Toynbee in addition to the show’s creators.

There’s a James Bond theme song with lyrics designed to reflect the economy of the day (“he has to pay to renew his license to kill, and the only reason he doesn’t shower alone is to cut down on the water bill; because Tomorrow Never Dies, just like the Bond franchise…”) There’s a panel discussion of the morals crisis infesting the BBC that’s recently come to light as well as the recent US elections. And, in my favorite tirade of the episode, series co-creator Revell levels a martini-dry accounting of the British involvement in the war in Afghanistan.

The only shortcoming of No Pressure is that it only drops once a month and that’s no laughing matter.

— Marc Hershon

Originally published 12.6.2012 in This Week In Comedy Podcasts on Splitsider.com

Succotash Epi42: Co-Hostin' With THAT Chris Gore

I'm trying desperately to get this edition of the Comedy Podcast Podcast up while it is still officially International Succotash Day. (As so declared by the inimitable Jabs of The DHead Factor podcast in Australia.) All day long our podcaster friends have been tweeting and messaging words of praise and support for the show — thanks, everybody! — and I've been enjoying seeing the number of downloads and the reviews and ratings go up!

I'm Marc, he's THAT Chris Gore…

Great fun this episode with my special guest co-host That Chris Gore onboard. Chris, the host of the PodCRASH podcast as well as regular on G4's Attack Of The Show, was in San Francisco for Stitcher's Podcast Awards. We talked about his tenure as publisher of one of my favorite magazines, FilmTHREAT, as well as his multi-pronged career doing all kinds of cool stuff in TV, the internet and film.

Chris picked some nice clips for this epi, all of which I'd never covered before, and after we talked about his podcast — listeners of Succotash have heard from PodCRASH here previously — where he appears on other podcasts, then plays excerpts on his show. Which means that you've be able to hear part of this episode of Succotash on a future episode of PodCRASH. It's as about as meta an experience as you're likely to find.

Two Marcs: Maron & Hershon

Last Minute: Since I was late getting this up, I can tell you that I DID end up attending the Stitcher Awards with special guest co-host Chris and it was a grand time. I met the CEO of Stitcher, Noah Shanok, and even got a picture with the evening's host, WTF's Marc Maron. Sadly, though nominated for both Best New Show and Best Album Artwork, Chris didn't end up taking up an Itchy or whatever they call their awards.

CLIPS

PodCRASH
A clip from PodCRASH epi55, wherein our guest co-host Chris Gore crashes Zane Lamprey Live. The main ingredient here seems to be alcohol. Cheers!

Joe Rogan Experience
Comedian and UFC commentator Joe Rogan, well-known for hosting TV's Fear Factor, hosts a daily podcast where he talks to other comics, friends and just plain interesting folks. His show is part of the Deathsquad network of podcasts.
http://DeathSquad.tv, iTunes and Stitcher

Lost Moon Radio
I met someone attached to Lost Moon Radio at the LA PodFest in October and he suggested I check it out. Now we're doing the same for you. Chris and I both loved the sound and feel of this sketch group out of Los Angeles, high prise considering this is only their third podcast.

Pointless: With Kevin Pereira
Best known as the co-host (and Chris Gore's colleague) on Attack Of The Show on G4, host Kevin Pereira has kicked off a new podcast on the Deathsquad network. In this clip he's chatting it up with successful YouTube video creator Freddie Wong.

No Pressure To Be Funny
I'm a huge fan of dry, witty, and biting British comedy. Having cut my teeth on Monty Python way back when they first crept into the US, I'm pleased to discover No Pressure To Be Funny. Hosted by James O’Brien, created by with Nick Revell and Alistair Barrie, each episode pulls a panel together from the arts, media and politics, where they then chat about that week's news in front of a live audience. This clip features Revell with a monolog about the war in Afghanistan, in a style that smacks of Douglas Adams. Brilliant.

Throwing Shade
Chis brings in this clip from Throwing Shade, a new-to-me podcast. Hosts Erin Gibson and Bryan Safi are both prolific writers and comedians whose weekly show focuses on politics, entertainment, gay rights and women's issues. This is pretty damn funny chat.

RIFF-erendum
San Francisco-based comedians Steven Pearl and Al Clethen, a couple of buddies of mine, started up RIFF-erendum so they could converse with some of THEIR favorite comedians and musicians. In the latest episode, they chew the fat with fellow Bay Area comic Jeff Applebaum.

We close out Epi42 with the return of Will Durst and his Burst O' Durst. With the elections over, our Ambassador to the Middle sets his sights on what the lame ducks in Congress are doing…or not doing…as the year winds down.

We're hoping to grace a pre-Christmas episode with a live appearance by the aforementioned Will Durst. If you're doing some driving over this holiday season, just remember that a long car ride is an excellent place to pass the Succotash!

— Marc Hershon