Funkhouser's Guide To Podcasts

Do you ever find yourself at work, or driving in your car and can never find anything you want to listen to?  Did you listen to KSR live or already knock out the podcast for the day? How about you try some other podcasts (once you’re finished with KSR’s of course)? Each week I’ll take a look at 2-3 podcasts that might strike your interest, especially if you’ve found your way here to Funkhouser.

 

Doug Loves Movies

Host: Doug Benson
Typical Day of Release: Varies (Usually 2-3 episodes a week, depending on Benson’s touring schedule… no not that Benson)
Average Length: Approximately One Hour.  Sometimes goes long (“Apologies to ‘Put Your Hands Together'”)
Recent Guests: Nick Frost, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (The World’s End)
Best First Episode to Start With: Jon Hamm, John Mulaney, Paul Rudd, Morgan Spurlock and Mike Birbiglia – 8-20-2012

Doug Loves Movies is part chat show, part game show.  In the first half of the show comedian Doug Benson (The Benson Interruption) sits down with his guests and chats about movies.  Usually the chat doesn’t last very long as the only question Doug typically asks is, “have you been to the movies lately?”

But it’s the second half of the show you’ll find yourself enjoying and participating in most.  The quiz portion might start with a few ice breaker games to get the guests in the movie thinking mood.  For example, a game called “How Much Did This **** Make” in which Doug names a movie and the contestants have to just guess how much the movie made (seems simple enough). The main event of the podcast is the “Leonard Maltin Game.”  This is a game that Doug, Sarah Silverman and Brian Posehn made up, playing out of the old Leonard Maltin Movie Review Guide. The rules of the game follow the old “Name That Tune” format.  Doug will name a category, usually something funny (Rocky’s Horrible Picture Show: Sylvester Stalone Movies Leonard Gave Less Than Two Stars).  Doug gives the year of the movie, very vague clues from the Maltin Review, (shot well, dvd has two extra minutes of footage, etc.), and the number of cast members listed.  The contestant must then bid the number of names they need (starting from the lowest billed actor) to name that movie.

It’s an all around enjoyable podcast to listen to because you get to hear some of your favorite comedians and actors get super competitive over a simple game, (looking at you Sam Levine).  The best players advance to the Tournament of Championships, which are $1.99, but completely worth it.

 

Sklarbro Country (& County)

Host: Randy and Jason Sklar
Typical Day of Release: Sklarboro County on Tuesdays, Sklarboro Country on Fridays
Average Length: County: 45 minutes to 1:15/Country One hour to 1:45
Recent Guests: Tom Arnold, Adam McKay, Dave Holmes, Toby Huss, Julie Klausner
Best First Episode to Start With: Sklarbro County 40 w/ Ben Hoffman.  Ben (Comedy Central’s The Ben Show) is a Kentucky native and talks about his love of Kentucky sports.  Matt Jones and KSR gets name dropped by the Sklars as well.

Comedians and Friends of KSR, Randy and Jason Sklar (Cheap Seats) are huge sports fans.  In “Sklarbro Country” the twins sit down with a guest and, for the most part, talk about sports.  You’ll find that the Sklars and their guest of the week will get pretty nostalgic in their sports talk, as they’ll talk about childhood sports heroes, favorite sports memories growing up.  They also dive in to current sports, but usually kept to the area in which the guest is from.  Recently, Brian Baumgartner (Kevin from The Office) was on and spoke to Randy and Jason about playing on the celebrity golf circuit and being friends with Charles Barkley.

If you don’t need another hour of people talking about sports, then check out Sklarbro County (it’s all on the same feed). In the “County,” the Sklars and comedian Dan Van Kirk, sit down with a guest, go over stupid criminal stories and riff on them as though they were sitting around a writer’s table.  If you follow the Twitter account @_floridaman, then these episodes are most certainly for you.  The line up of stories from a recent episode reads:

A Kentucky man who throws a firebomb that leads to a chain reaction of events, Florida brothers that take a fight over mac and cheese too far, and a Tempe resident who decides to take the law into his own hands.

If you have a 15-20 minute ride to work, then the County is perfect for you, because you can usually get through the first story by the time you get to the office.  If you’re a sports and comedy fan, Sklarbro Country/County is most certainly for you.

 

The Art of Wrestling

Host: Colt Cabana
Typical Day of Release: Thursdays
Average Length: One Hour
Recent Guests: The Miz, Matt Striker, The Honky Tonk Man, Demolition Smash, “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase
Best First Episode to Start With: If you’re a fan of 80’s wrestling, then go with Honky Tonk Man, Ted DiBiase or Jake Roberts.

I’m sure that if you read Raw is Funkhouser yesterday, then you’re probably not surprised that this is a podcast that I listen to.  Colt Cabana has been on the wrestling scene since the late 90’s, beginning his career in Chicago with C.M. Punk.  A few years back, Cabana had a brief drink of water in the WWE as Scotty Goldman, but never had but more than one or two matches.  Since then, Cabana has become an ambassador of the independent wrestling scene, mostly known for his comedy in wrestling.

In these hour long episodes, Cabana spends the first 5-8 minutes talking about his week in the world of professional wrestling.  After his weekly recap, Cabana will play the “song of the week” which is always wrestling related.  He’s used two of my suggestions, “Grandma vs. The Crusher“ and “The Ballad of The Blue Cyclone.”  Then the next 45 minutes are spent talking with the guest.  Cabana started his podcast because he listened to this medium while traveling on the road and thought, “Hey, there’s not a good interview podcast about wrestling.”  He notes that he listened to and was inspired by a lot of podcasts like WTF with Marc Maron and Comedy Bang Bang (two podcasts I’ll talk about in this series).  Usually recorded in the locker room (bathroom) of a wrestling show or in a hotel room, the sit down portions of the show are outstanding.  Cabana does a great job of making the guest feel like they’re just talking with one of the boys, which allows you to hear some crazy stories from the road that you may never have gotten to have heard otherwise.  The names that Cabana has interviewed ranges in wrestlers from the 1960’s to Today, USA to Australia, WWE to Backyard.  Definitely give this one a try.

 

Have you listened to any of these podcasts?  What are your favorite episodes?  What are your favorite podcasts to listen to? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter, @rbramblet