the JV Club
Late last year I realized that most of the podcasts I listen to are hosted by men, so I started looking for interesting comedy podcasts from a female perspective. Though it's not difficult to find women's voices in podcasts, it seems like few are actually hosted by them. I figured the best place to start was an all-woman podcast, so I chose the JV Club, which is focused on the teenage experiences of female comedians. And while it's not my favourite, it's definitely an interesting listening experience. I know I'm not the target audience, so it's not always thrilling to listen to, but there's always something worthwhile to hear in each episode.
The most interesting part of listening to it is just hearing how women talk to each other without men around; in particular, the jokes Alison Brie makes in her episode struck me as exactly the type my old roommate Emily would say to her friends. It's also a lot of fun to hear where guests' comic personas would come from, and an unusually large number of them point to Anne of Green Gables as a defining influence. Janet Varney is an affable host, good at keeping things light but offering immediate sympathy when necessary. She does inject a lot of her own experiences into the conversation, but that's impossible to avoid with such a rapport-focused show. Of course, the real draw comes from the guests, and the show can vary quite a bit depending on who's being interviewed: an episode with Maria Bamford tackles mental illness in a sincere way, while again, the Alison Brie episode is full of jokes and strange anecdotes.
The JV Club is nothing revolutionary, but it's found a great niche for itself in the podcast world. I'm looking forward to more awkward stories and "aww"s.