Succotash Epi266: Soundcastin' with a Capital B

Hi. Aloha. Shalom. Howdy. I am your every-other-weekly-host Marc Hershon, and this is Epi266 of Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast. Everybody in the right spot? Cool. Last week was Episode 265, “Summertime and the Clippin’ is Easy”, hosted by my partner in soundcasting Tyson Saner. If you missed it then you missed him featuring clips from the Salty Language soundcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, and Don't Ask Tig.

I’m calling this week’s installment “Soundcastin’ with a Capital B”, and it’s what we call a “hybridcast”: part clips, part chat, plus a special visit from our esteemed booth announcer Bill Heywatt, who you heard in the opening introduction. Back before all of this pandemic nonsense started, before we had to lockdown, he and I would occasionally belly up to the Studio P wet bar for a segment called “Boozin’ With Bill.” It’s been quite a while since Bill has mixed up one of his bizarre libations, plucked from the watering holes of his checkered radio history but I am happy to announce that we have a brand new segment!

And in a very weak attempt to turn that into a theme this time around, the four soundcast segments I have for you all have titles that begin with “B”: Bill Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast, The Bitch Bible, Breaking Bread with Tom Papa, and Brittlestar’s Really Great Podcast. And this episode is sponsored by Breakaway Trousers from Henderson’s Pants. See? Another B!

Finally – and yes, there is more in this super-sized episode – we’re going to chat with friend-of-Succotash and longtime soundcaster Chris Mancini, whose name does NOT start with a “B”, to have him talk about his latest Kickstarter campaign that is coming down to the wire. It’s for Volume 2 of his graphic novel, Rise of the Kung Fu Masters. (You can track down that, plus all three of his soundcasts – What Are You Watching?, The Quiet Journeys of Professor Atwood, and Tales from the Abyss – through his White Cat Entertainment website.

CLIPS

Bill Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast
For the first clip this show, we’re going to re-visit Bill Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast. We’ve featured Bill’s show before, I’ve reviewed for This Week in Comedy Podcasts, and with good reason: It’s always entertaining. He’s got the kind of talent it takes to fill an hour of podcast time – by himself – and keep it fresh and funny. Who else is doing that today? Greg Proops, Alonzo Bodden, and Greg Fitzsimmons come to mind, but there are not a whole lot of other comedy soundcasters who can do it without sidekicks, sketches, interviews or other elements to carry them through. This clip is actually from his show last Thursday, August 12th, and he rambles around the topics of Tik Tok and Boston comics.

Brittlestar’s Really Great Podcast
Next up is a clip from a Canadian-based soundcast: Brittlestar’s Really Great Podcast. Brittlestar is the well-known alias of Stewart Reynolds, from Ontario, and he has almost 20 million followers on YouTube. I love his humor – it’s very dry, very deadpan, and smart. From the “Canada Last Week” episode from July 30th I’ve clipped his report on the rental car situation on Cape Breton, a small island community in Canada. Helping him out with the report is Unrelated Expert and one of the stars of TVs Will & Grace, Eric McCormack.

The Bitch Bible
Our next clip comes from a soundcast that started out as a blog back in 2012. The Bitch Bible was created by its host, Jackie Schimmel. The show description touts it as being “A podcast that dares to say what many are thinking, but only a bitch would say. Expect unfiltered and unapologetic discussions about sex, millennial struggles, pop culture, social faux-pas and hopefully, an insightful takeaway. Nothing is off limits.” In this clip, which is from her recent episode (uabashedly entitled “The Worst Episode ever”, Jackie talks ranges from talking about Christmas trees to froyo.

Breaking Bread with Tom Papa
There’s a very funny comedian named Tom Papa. He’s been performing for years – mostly on the East Coast – and he’s hosted a few TV shows. His podcast, Breaking Bread with Tom Papa, is kind of like hanging out with Tom and his guests after a show. He literally “breaks bread”, as in having a meal with his friends and we get to join them. He recently invited the Sklar Brothers, Randy and Jason, to sit down and chew the figurative and literal fat. In our clip, the guys are talking about their kids turning into teens.

A couple of episodes ago we announced the rebranding of our call-in line due to the fact no one seemed to be interested in calling into it. So now you can reach us at the Succotash and Runaway Truck Ramp Hotline in order to either talk about comedy soundcasts or give listeners a status update on one of America’s runaway truck ramps. The number is 1 [phone].

Thanks for jumping into the Succotash for this extra-long episode. Grab us next week for Epi267 with co-host Tyson Saner. And try to wisely use whatever summer days you might have off. Remember to mask, vax, and be smart around people. And if anyone asks if you’ve heard anything good lately, won’t you please pass the Succotash?

— Marc Hershon