Review: Bear Down Podcast

Do you like Chicago Bears football and UCB Theater?  Well, not surprisingly, the podcast world has you covered.

The podcast runs weekly and features Matt Walsh of Upright Citizen's Brigade fame, screenwriter Scot Armstrong (he wrote Old School and a variety of other films) talking about the Chicago Bears football team, along with some friends of theirs who are Chicago bears fans.

This podcast is about 75% football, occasionally diverting into football-related topics, which is entertaining for the rest of us who don't follow football at all.

One example of these discussions would be which football team mascot would win in a fight were they to be real; for instance, could a bear actually fight a jet travelling 200 miles an hour?  One theory - the bear could gnaw on the wheels during takeoff.

Also, stories about Evel Knievel punching out a golfer, only to be restrained by Joe Namath? Done. 

I should point out that the football discussion is genuine, with Walsh and the rest really discussing the minutia of the game, from plays, to players to coaches, and a bunch of other things I do not understand because I do not follow football.

They still make it interesting for the non-fan, though, which counts.  For the comedy/Chicago Bears fan, this will probably be ideal, and perhaps group therapy for this season for how badly the Bears seem to be doing right now.

website: http://www.beardownpodcast.com/

Smodcast

Smodcast
A podcast featuring Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier

The SModcast is a podcast featuring Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier talking about random stuff. Occasionally there are other guests besides Scott Mosier like Kevin Smith's daughter Harely and his wife, Jennifer, but mostly it is Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier.

They talk about the film business some, like for instance, a recent episode talks about advertising problems with Zack and Miri Make a Porno in Philadelphia where they would not allow any advertising of the film whatsoever even if they had two stick figures and just called it Zack and Miri. Mostly though, they talk about random shit. Actually one episode has a discussion about that literally, where Kevin Smith talks about farting in his shower and accidentally shitting in the shower. Mind you it isn't a show that talks about shit and fucking and swear words - it's usually just a casual discussion from two very entertaining people that just happens to involve swear words and talks about shit and fucking. Also nerd stuff. Lots of nerd stuff, like a discussion about the movie Transformers and how it should have been just the effects shots and nothing else. Then a discussion as to whether people would pay nine dollars just to watch fifteen minutes of special effects - the consensus they came to was yes.

Actually, now that I think about it, the conversations are a perfect insight for you ladies as to what guys talk about when they are by themselves with no women around. It's talks about nerd stuff, gross stuff, and sex. Though Kevin Smith is a very funny guy and makes the discussions a lot more entertaining than the casual conversations you would probably have from your standard group of guys.

The production quality is good despite being recorded in Kevin Smith's house. Actually the recording in the house helps to lend the casual nature of the conversations. Occasionally, Kevin looks stuff up on the Internet or tells his dog to stop barking.

There is also some post-production work done to put music in at almost a subliminal level behind their conversations - for instance when talking about a moon astronaut, Major Tom plays, or less subtley, when Scott Mosier talks about an encounter with a shark, the theme to Jaws plays. It's a nice touch.

So yes, if you aren't offended easily, get this podcast. You won't regret it, and it's updated almost every week with about an hour of content.

Kasper Hauser Comedy Podcast

From the Kapser Hauser Sketch Comedy group
Mostly from 2007
(No relation to a mysterious foundling)

There are some funny bits to this sketch-comedy podcast and there are also not-so-funny bits. There are more funny bits than not, which is why I am recommending you listen to this sketch comedy podcast.

First the good - it has a pretty professional production quality, no recordings made in a parents basement here. In particular, I can think of the two "This American Life" episodes, where they make it sound almost exactly like a This American Life episode, complete with an Ira Glass sound-alike and beautiful interstitial music. The only difference between it and the real This American Life is that the subject matter is complete nonsense, such as a guy whose high school sank into the ocean and a guy who has a job fixing computers but knows nothing about computers.

There's other great stuff material, like "Spicy Pony Head" which involves a man ordering in a French Restaurant and getting offered pony head repeatedly. There's "Phone Calls to the 14th Century", a game show where people make a phone call to the 14th century in order to win a million dollars. There's "Mundo Des Perros" which is a show about dogs in Spanish. Good, wacky, well written stuff.

The bad stuff is the "Wedding Announcements from the New York Times" which is occasionally funny but about as entertaining as the actual New York Times wedding announcements.

There is also the repeated, incessant plugging of the book "SkyMaul" which is a parody of the "SkyMall" catalog found on most plane trips. It's pretty much plugged in every episode and some episodes are merely pages from the book. I mean, really, do you need to plug it with every show? It makes me absolutely, positively, not want to buy the book.

There are also some video bits. They are...okay.

So, go ahead, give the show a download. It's free, and it hasn't updated since 2007, there aren't a lot of episodes but there are some gems in the pile of sharp glass.

Here is a link to the Kasper Hauser website.

Maniacal Rage Podcast

There are a lot of Podcasts that are categorized as comedy if you look through the iTunes music store. Many of them deserve the comedy label about as much as your alcoholic step-uncle "deserves" booze. This podcast, the Maniacal Rage Podcast, does in fact deserve this title if it is the sort of thing you like.

It is Garrett Murray and Shawn Morrison out of New York City, having ordinary conversations that turn absurd quickly. For example a dream about turning into a marshmallow and being in a convenience store as it is being robbed leads to a discussion of how the marshmallow is made from either horse face or horse skull. Then they start talking about a jockey who would win his races by eating marshmallow fluff in front of a horse, which would get it angry and make it run harder. From there they discuss how horse races are actually run, which involves a cat on a stick moving around the side of the track, being swung around, yelling "Help me horses" and the horses run after it. Jockeys are discussed as being actual wizards who use their magical abilities to make people watch horse racing. An adjustment to horse racing is put forth where at the finish line, the horses all run into a giant vat of boiling gelatin at the end and everyone gets some memento glue.

Also on rare occasions, they have video podcasts which involve sketch comedy. Such sketch concepts like Garrett Traveling from the future to tell Shawn not to eat a sandwich, and further copies of Garrett start appearing from the future with different facial hair and start killing each other. Other sketch concepts include women dressed as Abraham Lincoln, and the notion that shooting at bums is very sexy.

The podcast does have some faults. One is that they don't update it that often, as is the case with many podcasts. The other is that with most of the podcast consisting of just two people talking, it can get a little slow. Still, this is a very funny and very well done podcast, and free, so you can't really go wrong in downloading it.

Click here for The Maniacal Rage Podcast Website

Downloadable Content

Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins at San Diego Comic-Con 2004

Downloadable Content is a sporadically-posted Podcast that documents the creative writing process between Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, the driving duo force behind Penny Arcade.

I would like to say that if you like Penny Arcade you will like this podcast, but that is not accurate. I think it's more accurate that if you like video games and have friends who like to discuss video games at length, and wish everyone was funnier, then you will enjoy this podcast.

A lot of this podcast centers around Mike and Jerry writing their comic. They put a lot of care into the writing; they take the whole thing seriously. They discuss whether they've used jokes too many times, how to make what they've written better, what to cut out, what not to cut out. They don't stop working on the writing until they are satisfied that what they have written is the best they can do. Interesting stuff.

The rest of the podcast often centers around (shock) video games. The podcasts come out sporadically, so naturally the more recent ones have more relevant content. Since the podcasts go back to 2006, you may find them talking about things such as "I don't think the Playstation 3 is going to come out in November" and "I don't know what they are thinking with the name 'Wii.'"

Beyond the comic-creating process and video games one gets to listen in to Mike and Jerry discuss such things as personal ideosyncracies, such as how Mike will stab through the candies a See's candy box with a knife in order to find the few candies that he enjoys and then throws out the rest, which he says is around "Ninety percent."

You can also hear about Jerry and how, when he was in a band, he had to be on the same bill as a band named "Anal Cunt." Thus followed a long discussion as to why the band had picked that name and how they must have trouble selling t-shirts. Stories like these are pure entertainment.

So download the podcast and enjoy. If it is the sort of thing you like.