Paul's favourite podcasts of 2013
Happy 2014, everyone. My music list is taking longer than usual, and will be up in a couple of months I assume. In the meantime, here are my favourite podcasts of 2013. I've organized them into my five favourite single episodes, and five (plus one honourable mention) favourite shows in general. Enjoy.
5. Getting Doug With High #6: "Sarah Silverman & Todd Glass"
Doug Benson is widely known as a stoner comedian, so it's only been a matter of time until he started a video podcast that consists entirely of him smoking weed with his guests. But that label only makes it easier to underestimate his disarmingly sharp and quick comedic mind. Under less capable hands, this show could easily go off the rails every single week, but his unmatched experience in podcasting (I think this is his fourth or fifth currently airing podcast) keeps even the most distracted guests on course. The podcast is still just getting going, but it's already much funnier than it would seem, and already blew past the whole novelty of seeing comedians get high on camera. Most episodes are great fun, but this one in particular, featuring great comedians (and friends) Sarah Silverman and Todd Glass, is the clear highlight so far.
4. improv4humans #63: "Malibu Ayahuasca Tea Party"
Despite host Matt Besser's ambitions to host "the greatest podcast in the universe," listening to improv4humans is an often frustrating experience, with the show somewhat halting in its attempts to improve itself. It is a frequently hilarious show, however, and it's had quite a good year in terms of being consistently funny-as one example, the first three scenes of episode 67, "Fish Hook," are my go-to scenes to show people the great things being done in audio improv. But I'm most enamoured of the show when it goes for crazy, conceptual material, and "Malibu Ayahuasca Tea Party" is by far the best example of that. An opening story about a psychedelic experience leads the improvisers to create some very trippy scenes, with reality constantly in question and the worlds of different scenes folding in on each other. Improv4humans is a lot of fun when it's on, but it's when it starts using the opportunities afforded by being audio-only to play with the reality of scenes that it starts sounding like nothing else in podcasting.
3. The Todd Glass Show #86: "Paul F. Tompkins & Jen Kirkman"
My pick for the single funniest podcast episode of 2013, albeit one that will likely be almost completely incomprehensible for anyone who hasn't already listened to the Todd Glass Show before. My usual rule of thumb is that for every good episode of the show, five more meandering, sometimes irritating ones will follow. But sometimes, the stars align and we get episodes like this, featuring two of the show's most reliably funny guests and just exploding with energy and creativity. I wrote a longer entry about the episode when it first came out way back in January, but after a great year of podcasts, the episode's stature hasn't decreased at all in my mind. I still remember bits from it and laugh. The Todd Glass Show may be a woefully inconsistent podcast, but that's part of its charm, and makes its dizzying heights only more impressive. And an episode like this is the closest the show's come to a sure thing.
2. Comedy Bang! Bang! #238: "Marissa Wompler's Birthday Pool Party LIVE"
It's been a banner year for Comedy Bang! Bang!, easily its best and most consistent one yet, but to my mind, the show hasn't released a better episode this year than the Marissa Wompler birthday episode. Marissa, a high school student played by the incredibly talented Jessica St. Clair, is one of the show's best characters, but she's also one of the more cumbersome ones to have on. Her abrasive nature tends to make her episodes focus almost entirely on her, and her penchant for gossip (and St. Clair's penchant for worldbuilding) make her backstory grow only more convoluted by the appearance. Host Scott Aukerman has reacted to this trend by devoting more and more elaborate episodes to the character, starting with "The Christmas Womptacular" special released late last year. The birthday episode is a semi-sequel to that one, adding more characters and a more involved setting-this time Marissa's condo pool. The guests find quite a bit to do with the pool setting, with characters entering and exiting as needed, and there's some great interplay between characters both new and old. Despite the five guests (with many portraying two characters each by the end of the episode), the show never feels overcrowded, mostly due to Aukerman's unparalleled hosting abilities. And despite so much going on throughout, my favourite moments remain the small jokes shared between Aukerman and St. Clair. It's sometimes hard to separate actor from character on CBB, but St. Clair has been on the show so frequently that she and Aukerman have a wonderful rapport, even as she's always embodying this larger-than-life teenager. There have definitely been funnier episodes of CBB this year, but I don't know if there's been a better showcase for the show's ever-expanding universe.
1. Harmontown #24-43: "Harmoncountry"
It's a copout to count this nineteen-episode run as my favourite podcast episode of 2013, but the truth is, I don't think I've heard any better podcasting this year than Dan Harmon's tour of the United States. Harmontown is something of a variety show, featuring songs, improv, and D&D, but really, Harmon isn't wrong whenever he says that he went on tour with no act. Each new city finds him in a different headspace, and the unscripted show changes to fit that mindset. There were highlights (Nashville's drunken hoedown, Brooklyn's D&D blowout) and lowlights (Charlotte's heckling debacle, Pittsburgh's relationship drama) alike, but throughout it all, Harmon remained characteristically candid and transparent about everything going on. It was as much about the show as it was about Harmon's thoughts on it. The tour made an unlikely (and unwilling) star out of dungeon master Spencer Crittenden, and pulled a much tighter focus (if that's at all possible) on Harmon's relationship with fellow podcaster Erin McGathy. A now-defunct tour timeline collected together all the social media posts from everyone involved in the trek, and tracking their progress was a venture unlike much else I've ever experienced. It was such an Internet-centred endeavour that it's kind of a marvel the show went on a physical tour at all. If I can hear something half as thrilling as this run on a podcast in 2014, it will have been some year for podcasting.
Honourable mention: 2brokegirlsandajew
I've really enjoyed the first few episodes of 2brokegirlsandajew, the new TV/film podcast from AV Club contributors Sonia Saraiya, David Sims, and (nominally) Pilot Viruet. Saraiya and Sims (despite being referenced in the title, Viruet has still yet to make an actual appearance, which, judging from her Twitter, is a damn shame) have great on-mic chemistry, and their loose, friendly conversations are a lot of fun to listen in on. Unlike most TV podcasts, the hosts don't have much of a gameplan before recording each episode, which doesn't stop them from finding great conversation topics, but does give the show a great, freewheeling feeling to it. It also leads to many surprisingly entertaining arguments between them, the most memorable of which being the one about network TV decisions in episode 9. Despite Saraiya's relocation to AV Club headquarters in Chicago, changing this to a Skype-recorded show, I have high hopes for future episodes, especially if Viruet makes a much-anticipated appearance.
5. TV on the Internet
Another TV podcast having a great year was TV on the Internet, hosted by AV Club TV editor Todd VanDerWerff along with his wife Libby Hill. Due to host availability, the show underwent a bit of a format change this year, having each episode focus on just one or two current shows, instead of the grab-bag format of previous years. Though it was initially a time-saving measure, the switch actually helped the show quite a bit, leading to great, further in-depth discussions than were previously possible. The show also incorporated more guests this year, featuring great appearances from fellow critics Carrie Raisler, Maureen Ryan, and both hosts of 2brokegirlsandajew. For my money, the show is the best TV podcast around, with consistently insightful, consensus-defying discussions in every new episode (in particular, their deconstruction of Breaking Bad's final season really validated a lot of the malaise I was feeling for the show in its last hours). And though they've become more rare recently, any furious rant from Libby Hill is a joy to listen to.
4. Welcome to Night Vale
2013 was the year Welcome to Night Vale was vaulted from near-obscurity to genuine cult phenomenon, but that hasn't impacted the show's quality at all, with each update from the small, impossibly terrifying desert community feeling like a gift. The show's format hasn't changed much since it started, but in 2013, writers Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor accomplished quite a bit, airing their first two-part episode ("The Sandstorm"), bringing together the star-crossed lovers of host Cecil and his scientist paramour Carlos, and introducing fan-favourite character The Faceless Old Woman Who Lives In Your Home. It's a weird, wonderful show, but it's also impeccably made, each news story paired with exactly the music cue it needs to achieve the right atmosphere. If you're at all curious about what exactly can be done in a comedy podcast, this is the place to start-not just because it's extremely addictive, or hilarious and creepy in equal measure, but because it's probably the most welcoming podcast around. Despite all the surreal stuff going on in Night Vale, Cecil Baldwin's calm narration invites you right into the horrors lurking within.
3. Ronna & Beverly
Ronna & Beverly is a bit of a hard sell. It's a show about two Jewish women in their 50s who, when they're not bickering with each other, attempt to interview celebrities, mostly unsuccessfully. It's in the characterization where the show really shines, however, with hosts Jessica Chaffin and Jamie Denbo totally embodying the two with an unmatched grasp of what makes each of them funny. The two have been performing as Ronna and Beverly for years onstage and onscreen, and as a result I don't think there's any better character work being done in podcasts. The interviews are funny enough, with great reactions from the guests to whatever the hosts say, and it's a lot of fun to guess exactly when Ronna and Beverly will start turning on the guests. But the opening and closing conversations between the two hosts are the real highlights, the two having these antagonistic, frequently multi-layered conversations about their fictional lives. The characters are so well-realized that they feel like actual lifelong friends, with all the shared history that entails. Listening to Chaffin and Denbo perform them is practically a master class in character-based improv. The fact that the show is so funny is just a bonus.
2. Getting On with James Urbaniak
Of all the comedy podcasts airing right now, Getting On with James Urbaniak is the one that most often pokes and prods at the edges of what you can really do with the format. It's a radio play starring James Urbaniak, with each episode written by a different person. It's also, as its tagline states, "a fictional podcast." What that means is that while it stars Urbaniak as himself, he's only playing a version of himself. Sometimes he's more deluded than he is in reality, or more self-centered, or more lascivious. Sometimes he's a submarine captain, or a 19th century prospector, or a personality that exists only in an iPhone app. In one remarkable episode, he is trick-or-treating with his children when they are all attacked by an otherworldly beast. Through it all, the only common element to each episode is Urbaniak's incomparable voice, confident and charismatic at turns and darkly intimidating at others. Each episode is immaculately produced by Urbaniak himself, and they're as immersive as anything you can see on a screen. There's no work more vital being done in podcasting today.
1. Call Chelsea Peretti
My favourite podcast on the air is Call Chelsea Peretti, and there isn't much more to it than its title implies. Fans call Peretti and talk to her about food, or murder, or reality TV, and frankly, there's nothing I'd rather be listening to. The show started off slowly, with both Peretti and her callers often at odds with each other (which was certainly not helped by her still-frequent hangups). But everything clicked into place late last year in episode 8, when after hearing a number of food tests (a regular "feature" where Peretti quizzes listeners on their opinions of various foods, then decides whether or not those opinions are correct), a listener leaves a voicemail detailing a multi-course meal consisting entirely of Peretti's favourite foods, thrilling her to no end. After that episode, Call Chelsea began developing its own active listener community, and became something more altogether positive in its execution. At this point, most of the callers have something genuinely interesting to say, and even if they don't, Peretti is a pro at leading the conversation until something interesting can be found. Look no further than episode 25, "The Case of the Good Callers," which features just a handful of calls in its hourlong runtime, each one offering a great conversation to listen to. There are occasional guests, but even they are caught up in the show's intoxicating atmosphere: Moshe Kasher was bewildered by the quality of the callers, while Adam Scott couldn't stop accepting calls even after he and Peretti decided the show was over. But really, while the guests are a lot of fun, there's nothing I like more than just Peretti shooting the shit with her fans, ridiculous sound effects onhand to punctuate whatever happens. It's always the first thing I listen to when it's available, and I don't think there's been a more successful example of the community-building power of podcasts. Here's to many more jackpot noises, "thank you for your love"s, and cars veering into traffic.
5. Getting Doug With High #6: "Sarah Silverman & Todd Glass"
Doug Benson is widely known as a stoner comedian, so it's only been a matter of time until he started a video podcast that consists entirely of him smoking weed with his guests. But that label only makes it easier to underestimate his disarmingly sharp and quick comedic mind. Under less capable hands, this show could easily go off the rails every single week, but his unmatched experience in podcasting (I think this is his fourth or fifth currently airing podcast) keeps even the most distracted guests on course. The podcast is still just getting going, but it's already much funnier than it would seem, and already blew past the whole novelty of seeing comedians get high on camera. Most episodes are great fun, but this one in particular, featuring great comedians (and friends) Sarah Silverman and Todd Glass, is the clear highlight so far.
4. improv4humans #63: "Malibu Ayahuasca Tea Party"
Despite host Matt Besser's ambitions to host "the greatest podcast in the universe," listening to improv4humans is an often frustrating experience, with the show somewhat halting in its attempts to improve itself. It is a frequently hilarious show, however, and it's had quite a good year in terms of being consistently funny-as one example, the first three scenes of episode 67, "Fish Hook," are my go-to scenes to show people the great things being done in audio improv. But I'm most enamoured of the show when it goes for crazy, conceptual material, and "Malibu Ayahuasca Tea Party" is by far the best example of that. An opening story about a psychedelic experience leads the improvisers to create some very trippy scenes, with reality constantly in question and the worlds of different scenes folding in on each other. Improv4humans is a lot of fun when it's on, but it's when it starts using the opportunities afforded by being audio-only to play with the reality of scenes that it starts sounding like nothing else in podcasting.
3. The Todd Glass Show #86: "Paul F. Tompkins & Jen Kirkman"
My pick for the single funniest podcast episode of 2013, albeit one that will likely be almost completely incomprehensible for anyone who hasn't already listened to the Todd Glass Show before. My usual rule of thumb is that for every good episode of the show, five more meandering, sometimes irritating ones will follow. But sometimes, the stars align and we get episodes like this, featuring two of the show's most reliably funny guests and just exploding with energy and creativity. I wrote a longer entry about the episode when it first came out way back in January, but after a great year of podcasts, the episode's stature hasn't decreased at all in my mind. I still remember bits from it and laugh. The Todd Glass Show may be a woefully inconsistent podcast, but that's part of its charm, and makes its dizzying heights only more impressive. And an episode like this is the closest the show's come to a sure thing.
2. Comedy Bang! Bang! #238: "Marissa Wompler's Birthday Pool Party LIVE"
It's been a banner year for Comedy Bang! Bang!, easily its best and most consistent one yet, but to my mind, the show hasn't released a better episode this year than the Marissa Wompler birthday episode. Marissa, a high school student played by the incredibly talented Jessica St. Clair, is one of the show's best characters, but she's also one of the more cumbersome ones to have on. Her abrasive nature tends to make her episodes focus almost entirely on her, and her penchant for gossip (and St. Clair's penchant for worldbuilding) make her backstory grow only more convoluted by the appearance. Host Scott Aukerman has reacted to this trend by devoting more and more elaborate episodes to the character, starting with "The Christmas Womptacular" special released late last year. The birthday episode is a semi-sequel to that one, adding more characters and a more involved setting-this time Marissa's condo pool. The guests find quite a bit to do with the pool setting, with characters entering and exiting as needed, and there's some great interplay between characters both new and old. Despite the five guests (with many portraying two characters each by the end of the episode), the show never feels overcrowded, mostly due to Aukerman's unparalleled hosting abilities. And despite so much going on throughout, my favourite moments remain the small jokes shared between Aukerman and St. Clair. It's sometimes hard to separate actor from character on CBB, but St. Clair has been on the show so frequently that she and Aukerman have a wonderful rapport, even as she's always embodying this larger-than-life teenager. There have definitely been funnier episodes of CBB this year, but I don't know if there's been a better showcase for the show's ever-expanding universe.
1. Harmontown #24-43: "Harmoncountry"
It's a copout to count this nineteen-episode run as my favourite podcast episode of 2013, but the truth is, I don't think I've heard any better podcasting this year than Dan Harmon's tour of the United States. Harmontown is something of a variety show, featuring songs, improv, and D&D, but really, Harmon isn't wrong whenever he says that he went on tour with no act. Each new city finds him in a different headspace, and the unscripted show changes to fit that mindset. There were highlights (Nashville's drunken hoedown, Brooklyn's D&D blowout) and lowlights (Charlotte's heckling debacle, Pittsburgh's relationship drama) alike, but throughout it all, Harmon remained characteristically candid and transparent about everything going on. It was as much about the show as it was about Harmon's thoughts on it. The tour made an unlikely (and unwilling) star out of dungeon master Spencer Crittenden, and pulled a much tighter focus (if that's at all possible) on Harmon's relationship with fellow podcaster Erin McGathy. A now-defunct tour timeline collected together all the social media posts from everyone involved in the trek, and tracking their progress was a venture unlike much else I've ever experienced. It was such an Internet-centred endeavour that it's kind of a marvel the show went on a physical tour at all. If I can hear something half as thrilling as this run on a podcast in 2014, it will have been some year for podcasting.
Honourable mention: 2brokegirlsandajew
I've really enjoyed the first few episodes of 2brokegirlsandajew, the new TV/film podcast from AV Club contributors Sonia Saraiya, David Sims, and (nominally) Pilot Viruet. Saraiya and Sims (despite being referenced in the title, Viruet has still yet to make an actual appearance, which, judging from her Twitter, is a damn shame) have great on-mic chemistry, and their loose, friendly conversations are a lot of fun to listen in on. Unlike most TV podcasts, the hosts don't have much of a gameplan before recording each episode, which doesn't stop them from finding great conversation topics, but does give the show a great, freewheeling feeling to it. It also leads to many surprisingly entertaining arguments between them, the most memorable of which being the one about network TV decisions in episode 9. Despite Saraiya's relocation to AV Club headquarters in Chicago, changing this to a Skype-recorded show, I have high hopes for future episodes, especially if Viruet makes a much-anticipated appearance.
5. TV on the Internet
Another TV podcast having a great year was TV on the Internet, hosted by AV Club TV editor Todd VanDerWerff along with his wife Libby Hill. Due to host availability, the show underwent a bit of a format change this year, having each episode focus on just one or two current shows, instead of the grab-bag format of previous years. Though it was initially a time-saving measure, the switch actually helped the show quite a bit, leading to great, further in-depth discussions than were previously possible. The show also incorporated more guests this year, featuring great appearances from fellow critics Carrie Raisler, Maureen Ryan, and both hosts of 2brokegirlsandajew. For my money, the show is the best TV podcast around, with consistently insightful, consensus-defying discussions in every new episode (in particular, their deconstruction of Breaking Bad's final season really validated a lot of the malaise I was feeling for the show in its last hours). And though they've become more rare recently, any furious rant from Libby Hill is a joy to listen to.
4. Welcome to Night Vale
2013 was the year Welcome to Night Vale was vaulted from near-obscurity to genuine cult phenomenon, but that hasn't impacted the show's quality at all, with each update from the small, impossibly terrifying desert community feeling like a gift. The show's format hasn't changed much since it started, but in 2013, writers Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor accomplished quite a bit, airing their first two-part episode ("The Sandstorm"), bringing together the star-crossed lovers of host Cecil and his scientist paramour Carlos, and introducing fan-favourite character The Faceless Old Woman Who Lives In Your Home. It's a weird, wonderful show, but it's also impeccably made, each news story paired with exactly the music cue it needs to achieve the right atmosphere. If you're at all curious about what exactly can be done in a comedy podcast, this is the place to start-not just because it's extremely addictive, or hilarious and creepy in equal measure, but because it's probably the most welcoming podcast around. Despite all the surreal stuff going on in Night Vale, Cecil Baldwin's calm narration invites you right into the horrors lurking within.
3. Ronna & Beverly
Ronna & Beverly is a bit of a hard sell. It's a show about two Jewish women in their 50s who, when they're not bickering with each other, attempt to interview celebrities, mostly unsuccessfully. It's in the characterization where the show really shines, however, with hosts Jessica Chaffin and Jamie Denbo totally embodying the two with an unmatched grasp of what makes each of them funny. The two have been performing as Ronna and Beverly for years onstage and onscreen, and as a result I don't think there's any better character work being done in podcasts. The interviews are funny enough, with great reactions from the guests to whatever the hosts say, and it's a lot of fun to guess exactly when Ronna and Beverly will start turning on the guests. But the opening and closing conversations between the two hosts are the real highlights, the two having these antagonistic, frequently multi-layered conversations about their fictional lives. The characters are so well-realized that they feel like actual lifelong friends, with all the shared history that entails. Listening to Chaffin and Denbo perform them is practically a master class in character-based improv. The fact that the show is so funny is just a bonus.
2. Getting On with James Urbaniak
Of all the comedy podcasts airing right now, Getting On with James Urbaniak is the one that most often pokes and prods at the edges of what you can really do with the format. It's a radio play starring James Urbaniak, with each episode written by a different person. It's also, as its tagline states, "a fictional podcast." What that means is that while it stars Urbaniak as himself, he's only playing a version of himself. Sometimes he's more deluded than he is in reality, or more self-centered, or more lascivious. Sometimes he's a submarine captain, or a 19th century prospector, or a personality that exists only in an iPhone app. In one remarkable episode, he is trick-or-treating with his children when they are all attacked by an otherworldly beast. Through it all, the only common element to each episode is Urbaniak's incomparable voice, confident and charismatic at turns and darkly intimidating at others. Each episode is immaculately produced by Urbaniak himself, and they're as immersive as anything you can see on a screen. There's no work more vital being done in podcasting today.
1. Call Chelsea Peretti
My favourite podcast on the air is Call Chelsea Peretti, and there isn't much more to it than its title implies. Fans call Peretti and talk to her about food, or murder, or reality TV, and frankly, there's nothing I'd rather be listening to. The show started off slowly, with both Peretti and her callers often at odds with each other (which was certainly not helped by her still-frequent hangups). But everything clicked into place late last year in episode 8, when after hearing a number of food tests (a regular "feature" where Peretti quizzes listeners on their opinions of various foods, then decides whether or not those opinions are correct), a listener leaves a voicemail detailing a multi-course meal consisting entirely of Peretti's favourite foods, thrilling her to no end. After that episode, Call Chelsea began developing its own active listener community, and became something more altogether positive in its execution. At this point, most of the callers have something genuinely interesting to say, and even if they don't, Peretti is a pro at leading the conversation until something interesting can be found. Look no further than episode 25, "The Case of the Good Callers," which features just a handful of calls in its hourlong runtime, each one offering a great conversation to listen to. There are occasional guests, but even they are caught up in the show's intoxicating atmosphere: Moshe Kasher was bewildered by the quality of the callers, while Adam Scott couldn't stop accepting calls even after he and Peretti decided the show was over. But really, while the guests are a lot of fun, there's nothing I like more than just Peretti shooting the shit with her fans, ridiculous sound effects onhand to punctuate whatever happens. It's always the first thing I listen to when it's available, and I don't think there's been a more successful example of the community-building power of podcasts. Here's to many more jackpot noises, "thank you for your love"s, and cars veering into traffic.