W3

This weeks W3 theme: Comedy Podcasts!

I'm quite excited to say that I've got a special guest on W3 this week, though her bit will come at the end.

So here's some podcasts I like.

There's 3 Absolute Radio podcasts that I download so I'll lump them together first.

Frank Skinner:
Frank "Mr Radio" Skinner has two podcasts, one is what goes out live from his Saturday morning breakfast show (minus music, news, travel etc) and the other, the "not the weekend podcast", is just him and his two co-hosts, Emily "Pearl and" Dean and Alun "The Cockerel" Cochrane (who replaced Gareth "Saturday Morning" Richards), having a bit of a chat and banter.
Frank is his usual quick witted self and Emily and Alun provide just as much chuckles and comedy insights as Frank himself. It seems to be a weekly competition to see who can make producer Emma laugh the loudest.

Verdict: Very funny

Dave Gorman:
Like Frank Skinner, Dave also has two podcasts, one of them, the "Sunday podcast" is what goes out live from his Sunday morning breakfast show (minus music, news, travel etc, a point that Dave labours over every single week) and another podcast, the "Some day Podcast" which is released later in the week.
Dave is joined by his two co-hosts Danielle Ward (who I've seen on Mock the Week) and Martin White (who I think sounds a wee bit like Andy Hamilton) to provide a very funny radio show, the highlights of which are Wards Weekly Word (ooh, W3) which is ridiculously hilarious and Martin's amazing ability to sum up the show with a new song every week.
What makes these podcasts really worth downloading though is the stuff that doesn't go out on air, the "correspodcast" as Dave calls it. The correspodcast contains such amazing gems as "Pun Street" and the "Listeners Lexicon". It really is worth a listen.

Verdict: Super funny, also if you've ever heard someone call "Florence and the Machine", "Flo and the Mac", that was because of Dave Gorman.

Iain Lee:
You know Iain Lee? Tall, skinny guy that skilfully asked people really awkward questions without them noticing on the 11 0'clock show? Yeah? Well, he does a call in show an Absolute Radio, with his producer and sometimes co-host Eloise Carr, 4 nights a week. Each show gets turned into an almost 2 hour podcast. This is one of those, anything goes type, call in shows, meaning Iain talks to all manner of inbred dribbling halfwits. The show can be a bit weird at times but in the main it's pretty hilarious.
My personal highlights are when Iain and Eloise chat/argue on air, and when Barry from Watford or Rob Burnett call in.

Verdict: Surreal at times but in the main awesome, also, almost 8 hours of entertainment a week (not including the other podcasts he does) for free is pretty darn good.

NINJA SQUIRREL NEWS FLASH:
I've just discovered that Iain Lee is no longer at Absolute Radio! Shame.
Though his podcasts are still available on iTunes.

Right, that's Absolute out of the way, here's some other stuff.

Pappys Bangers and Mash:
Comedy troupe Pappys (formerly Pappys fun club) do a podcast (though not frequently enough) called "Bangers and Mash" where they record themselves chatting. They then go back and take some ideas from the chat to make sketches. Then they edit the sketches into the chat. The chat is the mash and the sketches are the bangers! Get it? It makes sense when you hear it.

Verdict: If the chat was their pants then the sketches are their wangers. It's that good.

Pappys Flatshare Slamdown:
Comedy troupe Pappys (yeah, them again) do another podcast (nowhere near frequently enough) called Flatshare Slamdown. This podcast is a panel game show in which Matthew is the host/landlord while Ben and Tom do battle to avoid doing a household chore, each joined by a celebrity guest to help them.
Show highlights for me have been, an appearance by a very drunk Rufus Hound, The Right Honourable Fanshaw Standon and the stings for each round, particularly the quickfire round.

Verdict: Download them all now, you will literally ROFL!

Answer Me This:
The Answer Me This podcast is a home made podcast hosted by Helen Zaltzman (I'm sure you've heard of her, the podcast is very successful, but if you haven't then she's comedian Andy Zaltzman's sister, sculptor Zack Zaltzman's daughter and Soundman Martin "Martin the soundman" Austwick's wife), Olly "Oliver" Mann and Martin "Martin the soundman" Austwick. Basically they answer peoples questions on a weekly basis. Whimsically and comically at first but then they do give a serious and well researched attempt at an answer. The questions are separated by jingles, recorded mainly by other comedians, a particular favourite of mine is Josie Long's.

Verdict: Informative and hilarious.

Rhod Gilbert's best bits:
Welsh comedian Rhod Gilbert does a radio show on BBC Radio Wales every Saturday. Most weeks he's accompanied by Chris "corky" Corcoran (the dude from doodle do) and he's also been joined by Lloyd (related to Bonnie?) Langford and several of GLC. This is only a best bits podcast and therefore is not very long, but it is very funny. Rhod's grumpy persona makes for enjoyable listening.
Personal highlights include, long running feature "celebrity out of context bingo" and answering almost every piece of listener correspondence with "never contact the show again".

Verdict: Short and sweet.

Comedy of the week:
Comedy of the Week is a podcast from the BBC and it features a variety of comedy from BBC Radio 4. It's kind of a taster of what comedy there is to listen to on Radio 4 and it's a good place to find some really funny stuff.
I've heard comedy from the likes of Sarah Milliken, Mark Thomas, Lenny Henry and Tom Wrigglesworth.

Verdict: Good source of comedy.

Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4:
This is the podcast version of two Friday night BBC Radio 4 comedy shows, The Now Show and The News Quiz. You don't get them both on one podcast though, you'll get a run of one then a run of the other. Both are really good but I think The News Quiz is slightly funnier, especially the clippings from newspapers.

Verdict: Very funny.

There are two other comedians who are very prolific podcasters, too prolific for me to mention all their podcasts here, and I would highly recommend downloading all of the podcasts that they have done. These two men probably don't get mentioned in the same sentence very often, they are Richard Herring and Ricky Gervais. They both have a lot of material out there and it's all great, personal highlights for me are As It Occurs To Me for Richard Herring and The Ricky Gervais Guide To...for Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington.

Happy listening :)

Now it's the turn of my special guest, Gina Scott!

WTF with Marc Maron:
American comedian Marc Maron has been involved in the comedy scene since the 90's. Whether he's performing stand up, hosting a radio show or appearing on TV, this guy has a huge amount of knowledge and stories that he shares in the twice weekly podcast, WTF with Marc Maron.

In WTF, Maron invites Comedians and celebrities to his studio-cum-garage (also known as the cat ranch) in LA to take part in a free form discussion encouraging honest opinions about their careers, personal lives, state of the entertainment industry and often turbulent journey through it. Having crossed paths with many of the guests previously, Maron is openly honest about his feelings (both positive and negative) toward them. Also - his ability to keep you engaged in an interview with someone you've never heard of means there is always a podcast to listen to and really enjoy.

WTF is free every Monday and Thursday.
(Check out wtfpod.com to sign up for the premium package which gives you access to all of Marc's old podcasts with people like Ben Stiller, Ed helms, Robin Williams, Andrew Dice Clay, Dane Cook and special live show recordings. There are literally hundreds to choose from.)

Verdict: Awfy gid.

Nice work Gina, you can come back.