Podcast Reviews

To fully appreciate this quirky show you have to be familiar with the perception of small-town life in America, or failing that, listen to This American Life. Extruding America is released weekly and shows run for about 10 minutes. It is basically a comedy program; however lumping it into this category does not come close to fully describing this clever little show that operates on a variety of levels.

When you break the show down it is a fairly simple concept. Two improvisation actors (in real life) act the parts of Gerard Armbruster and Stetson Tudd. Gerard plays the role of Ira Glass interviewing Stetson Tudd, a good old boy from the semi-rural American town of Battersea, near Seattle. Stet is the author of a book called ‘The Willow Switch’ where he advocates everyone find their own form of punishment in their own lives.

Each week Gerard tries to focus on one theme of small-town American life. He will try to mould his show around this theme while Stet takes the show down other paths. On a recent episode Gerard tried to focus on the theme of ‘Isolation’ while Stet continually talked about the Chinese dish Ma Po Dofu (full list of ingredients available on the website) that he found useful for fighting against his Winter suicidal tendencies.

Some of the funniest parts of the show that made me cackle out loud like a witch were when Stet described some of the cast of characters in Battersea. Stet goes into great detail about his friends at the local tavern including Turk and Goon. At other times Stet is quite candid about the poor state of the town of Battersea. He says that the biggest sign of progress in the town in recent months was a Gay Pride Parade that involved 40 people.

Overall this is a very quirky and satirical show that is well worth a listen. I’m not sure how much of the show is scripted but judging by the hosts backgrounds it would be safe to assume that at least some it is improvised. Do yourself a favour and download episode one of this show; if you have an ounce of funny in you I’m pretty sure it won’t be your last.

Podcast Rating: 9 out of 10

Website: http://www.extrudingamerica.com/

RSS Feed: http://www.extrudingamerica.com/rss

Never Not Funny is a weekly comedy podcast with very good production and audio qualities that features Jimmy Pardo and two friends, Mike Schmidt and Matt Belknap. The show is produced weekly and runs for about an hour. It has a very relaxed format and effectively meanders from one topic to the next as the hosts discuss a myriad of topics.

As an Australian I was unfamiliar with Jimmy Pardo’s work; although I know many people reading this review would know him from his comedy work and shows such as Funny Money and Movies at Our House. To see a better biography of Jimmy’s work take a look at this IMDB link. The best thing that Never Not Funny has going for it is that the three regular hosts are professional entertainers. They are able to maintain a high tempo throughout the show, and more importantly, come across as really engaging and likeable people.

It’s too difficult to attempt to pigeonhole the variety of topics that Jimmy and his co-hosts discuss so I will just mention a few recent ones. On recent episodes Jimmy has discussed Thanksgiving, computers and his experiences working on numerous TV and comedy shows.

One of the problems with the show was the length; I found myself drifting off at certain parts of the show. It’s hard to stay focussed on a conversation without an agenda, as a passive listener, for a full hour. My other gripe with the show was that too often I felt like I was an outsider listening in on a conversation about a world (comedy and celebrity) that I would unlikely ever be involved in, let alone relate to. I realise that my background as an Australian not growing up with many of the shows that Jimmy has appeared in influences this position.

If you’re after a good-natured comedy show that’s well presented and often entertaining (if not laugh aloud funny) then this show will most probably appeal to you. Being familiar with the US comedy scene will also be a big advantage in relating to the content of the show and will probably bump your own personal rating of the show to an 8 or a 9.

Podcast Rating: 7 out of 10

Website: http://podcast.jimmypardo.com/NeverNotFunny/Podcast/Podcast.html

RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/NeverNotFunny

Attempted Unknown is a video blog featuring Tim Ainsworth giving his thoughts about life as a US Postal Carrier. The second season has just started this month and episodes run for around 8 minutes.

The most interesting thing about this videocast is its apparent lack of context. Despite watching several episodes I am still unsure as to whether Tim is just a passionate postie or whether the podcast is a satirical look at American culture. You might think of it as a little like Borat without the nude wrestling. Certainly Tim Ainsworth delivers his lines with a passion and a deadpan, subtle manner that makes one question the genre of this podcast.

The show is produced by William Lemke of Propadata Films. Will produces a number of podcasts that showcase his work and it is clear that he is very skilled at his craft. Attempted Unknown is well paced and engaging. From a technical point of view it is excellent.

Some of the funniest moments in the episodes I watched were when Tim interviewed a Danish citizen about the Danish postal service. Tim quizzed his friend on whether mail fraud was common in Denmark and whether people would steal mail from the Danish postal carrier’s bicycles when they delivered mail into apartment buildings. Taken out of context this scene is unimpressive, but to see Tim’s zeal in action is both touching, in an odd way, and humorous. The scene where Tim advises the viewer to put a lot of work into your Halloween pumpkin because the US Postal Carriers would be judging your work was also very funny.

If you’re after a something that’s a bit quirky, yet well produced, then this is the podcast for you. I am looking forward to gaining more insights into the world of Tim Ainsworth, US Postal Carrier.

Podcast Rating: 8 out of 10

Website: http://www.propadatafilms.com/

RSS Feed: http://www.propadatafilms.com/podcasts/attemptedunknown/attemptedunknown.xml

In some ways it seems a bit redundant to review a Scott Sigler novel. Scott Sigler took the podcasting world by storm with his first audio novel Earth Core (or podiobook) and The Rookie is his fourth podcast novel. A new episode is released about once a week and at the time of writing about one third of the book has been released.

The Rookie follows a slightly different pattern to Scott’s earlier novels in that it is set some seven hundred years in the future and focuses on a futuristic American Football league. Traditionally Scott’s novels could be described as science-fiction on a lethal dose of crystal-meth. Scott has been compared to Michael Crichton with an extra serving of gore. This is an accurate comparison, to a limited extent, except that Scott’s novels use science fiction and fantasy as wallpaper to the main events, whereas Crichton may sometimes put more importance on the science-fiction than the characters. While science-fiction and fantasy are important in The Rookie, these background settings are never put above the excellent character development of the novel.

It is the characters that make The Rookie come alive and keeps the listener coming back for more. We are interested in how Quentin Barnes survives in the Tier 2 league against alien species. One clever narrative device that Scott uses is to describe this inter-species universe through Quentin’s perspective. I am not someone who would usually enjoy fantasy novels, but due to a gentle introduction to Quentin Barnes’ world I felt that I was able to acclimatise to the setting with a gentle landing.

One of the most satisfying things about listening to The Rookie is the feeling of being part of the ‘live’ experience. It can be a double-edged sword when you have to wait a full week or more for the next chapter; Scott doesn’t call his listeners junkies for nothing. Scott Sigler is a true pioneer in podcasting technology in a medium that is really only a couple of years old and this novel is well worth a listen.

Podcast Rating: 9 out of 10

Website: http://scottsigler.podshow.com/

RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/scottsigler

The Small Room podcast is set up as a radio show. It is recorded live from Brisbane, Australia as an internet radio show and listeners are encouraged to contact the show while the show is recorded live. The show is available to listen to live Friday nights (AEST) or as a podcast once a week. Shows run for about an hour and are a combination of Australian podsafe music, chat between the married hosts (Mark and Lizzie) and other comedy bits and stories.

The show is remarkably well set up with live internet streaming, live chat, message boards, Skype and phone numbers in Australia, the US and the UK. My favourite section of the show was the featured Australian bands. Information about each of these can be found in the show notes on the websites.

Unfortunately the infrastructure around the show is not enough to prop The Small Room up. Mark and Lizzie, while being very comfortable and relaxed, are content to let the spoken word section of the show drift along without much direction. There does not seem to be enough prepared topics to last the 40-50 minutes of air time and Mark’s pleas for people to call in live seemed to go largely unheeded (there were one or two live calls in the shows I listened to).

I know that it can’t be easy making three quarters of an hour of talk between two laid back people entertaining; I know I’d struggle. This being said, this is one show that needs to tighten up the production values of the show. Listeners don’t need to know about the post-editing process of the show and if I hear another podcaster talk about their fairly mundane business trip I think I may spontaneously combust.

Overall The Small Room is a podcast that has clearly had a lot of effort put into the structure of the show without that effort or professionalism always being evident in the show itself. The show, in its present stage, also feels a little empty as it is really set up as a radio show that is dependent on its energy from live listener interaction that is sadly lacking; hopefully over time this will change as their audience grows.

Podcast Rating: 5 out of 10

Website: http://www.thesmallroom.net/

RSS Feed: http://thesmallroom.libsyn.com/rss