In a year where people have come to expect the unexpected, comedy podcasts can provide a welcome respite with laughter and lighthearted listening.
Spotify has three new podcasts for those looking for their next dose of humor. Read on for a little about each one, as well as a short Q&A with the creators, guests, and hosts who are responsible for the laughs. Get ready to chuckle.
The Sketch Factor is a scripted sketch comedy podcast produced by Radio Point, and hosted by Fred Armisen, who's known for his work on the television shows Portlandia and Documentary Now! In this series, Armisen plays Xandor Szavost, an inventor, philanthropist, and billionaire who is using his fortune to finance a sketch comedy competition for his own amusement. At three to five minutes each, episodes are short and perfect for a quick comedy hit. For the Record caught up with the show's cast member and comedian, Seaton Smith.
What's the best April Fools' prank you've ever been a part of? Seaton: God, I hate pranks. One time I was late to a show, and my friend and his girl got there early and were bored. So, as a prank, he had his girlfriend call me and tell me that he started a fight with the bouncer and the police were there holding him down, and I had to hurry up and get there. It WAS funny. It just wasn't the easiest thing to laugh at.
What would you say is the main difference between audio-only comedy, like what's in this podcast, and comedy with a visual component? Seaton: Comedy you just listen to is fun because it hits you differently. Visually, I need all of your attention, and if I lose your attention for a second, then the comedy is hurt. But with audio, you can go do other things and still be all into it. It's like we're in your mind as you go about your day.
The podcast Flameout, produced by Treefort Media, brings together comedians to unravel the biggest business success stories gone wrong. The stories feature insider interviews and juicy revelations that include comedic and unfiltered opinions on the business flameouts. We chatted with Michael Ian Black, Baron Vaughn, Atsuko Okatsuka, and Abbi Crutchfield, who all take a turn as show hosts.
Why do you think comedy has been so important over the last year? Abbi: Comedy has been a release valve for all of my pent-up frustration-fear, anger, despair-during the past year. It wasn't easy to adjust to virtual performances, but it was always a relief to do a show and connect with people. I thought it might be the new way for everyone to enjoy comedy (So convenient! No commute! No drunken fights!), but now with the vaccine, it seems more like a dystopian version of comedy. There is no substitute for live performance, as Milli Vanilli will tell you.
What's the best April Fools' prank you've ever been a part of? Michael: I faked my own death for 10 years, April 1, 2003 to April 1, 2013. Joke ended up being on me, though, because my wife remarried and started a new family in my absence. So that was kind of a bummer.
Atsuko: I've never been a part of an April Fools' prank because that would insinuate I had friends. Ha-it's okay I've coped with it. Instead, I've been the subject of an April Fools' prank, where a bunch of rich popular girls from school put shaving cream all over my car and wrapped it up with toilet paper. My car was parked in front of my uncle's house. Because I was living in his garage. As an undocumented kid. Yay America!
What would you say is the main difference between audio-only comedy, like what's in this podcast, and comedy with a visual component? Baron: Listening to someone without seeing the speaker or any other visual component requires an entirely different level of focus. Not relying on visual cues means tuning into things like tone, inflection, and rhythm. You get a different sense of how someone talks. Those are things that are usually natural, but there are ways to play with that with intention. That, however, is for another April Fools'.
Nosy Neighbors is a new podcast featuring comedians Candice Thompson (previously a writer/correspondent on Lights Out with David Spade) and Chinedu Unaka (who will be featured on the upcoming season of Insecure). In each episode, the cohosts highlight the wildest neighbor stories of the week, dissecting and analyzing those involved, settling disputes, unpacking petty posts on local forums, and celebrating good neighborly behavior. The series includes call-ins from fellow comedians who share their own tales of notable neighbors. Both Candice and Chinedu answered a few questions for us.
Why do you think comedy has been so important over the last year? Candice: Man . . . comedy should've made it onto Time Magazine's Most Influential People of the Year list for 2020. We all would have lost our minds without it. Every comedian was an essential worker last year. Putting out online content became something I know I started doing more of to entertain other people, because I know they were looking for literally any reason to laugh, but I also did it for my own sanity. I had always thought of comedy as a career, but last year it felt like it became a charitable donation. I'm going to see if I can write it off on my taxes.
What's the best April Fools' prank you've ever been a part of? Candice: I've never been a huge prank person, but I do recall being on the receiving end of a prank in college when my best friend told me he'd gotten someone pregnant. We were so ride or die I was mentally preparing to drop out of college to help him raise the baby. I was like, I can learn to breastfeed. How hard can it be? That prank was stressful.
Chinedu: Me and my college friend Anthony bought a bunch of bike locks and locked everyone in our dormitory's bikes together early morning
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
28/04/2024
Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with U...
16/04/2024
If there remains any doubt that the cloud and artificial intelligence are transforming the workflows that drive the Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry, Amazon...
16/04/2024
Evan Jacobs, VP Finishing & Stereo at Marvel Studios, cautioned not to downplay the home entertainment environment too much, noting that it's now hard to bu...
16/04/2024
The age of streaming the opportunity for different viewing habits for many. Entire seasons could be binged whenever you had the time to spare and didn't m...
16/04/2024
LAS VEGAS During a press conference at the NAB Show, ARRI unveiled its ALEXA 35 Live - Multicam System, which is designed to bring the cinematic image quality o...
16/04/2024
ROXi announced that it has partnered with Pearl TV and major U.S. broadcasters to deploy ROXi's FastStream-powered interactive TV channels on the broadcaste...
16/04/2024
U.S. Internet households now consume an average 43.5 hours of video per week across all viewing devices. That's an increase of more than six hours in 2020, ...
16/04/2024
Lawo and Waves Audio have announced that the Waves SuperRack LiveBox hardware server being displayed at the 2024 NAB Show is fully compatible with Lawo's mc...
16/04/2024
At the 2024 NAB Show, Riedel Communications has unveiled its expanded RiCapture ingest solutions line with the addition of RiCapture i8, i44, and i84. Complemen...
16/04/2024
Coles enhanced colour separation, adding shape and depth to the characters through the use of a soft highlight and shadow roll off, and embracing the natural te...
16/04/2024
The Prismatic Company Debuts Strategy for New LightWeave Platform for the Creato...
16/04/2024
Avid to Demonstrate Latest Stream of Innovation at NAB Show 2024 to Drive the Op...
16/04/2024
Paramount Plus has ordered a fourth season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and said the fifth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks will be the final one. Season f...
16/04/2024
Sinclair said that it launched Broadspan, a datacasting platform based on the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast technology....
16/04/2024
LAS VEGAS Byron Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group, spoke about his bid to acquire Paramount Global at NAB Show April 14. Allen called Para...
16/04/2024
Major station owners are bringing interactivity to broadcast, hoping that will convince consumers particularly younger ones obsessed with TikTok to buy new ...
15/04/2024
(Robin Marshall/Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
15/04/2024
LONDONDERRY, N.H., April 15, 2024 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) received a $256 million order from the U.S. Army for continued production of the Enhanced N...
15/04/2024
Montreal, Canada - April 15, 2024 - Grass Valley, a pioneer in live production s...
15/04/2024
NEW YORK In a major step forward in the broadcast industry's move to ATSC 3.0, NBCUniversal announced that it is launching personalized broadcast experience...
15/04/2024
LAS VEGAS Ross Video has announced an agreement to acquire Bannister Lake Software (BL Soft), a 31-year old Cambridge, Ontario-based provider of data-driven bro...
15/04/2024
Panasonic has revealed some of its technology that will be used for the broadcast of this summer's Olympic Games and Paralympics in Paris....
15/04/2024
Adobe Previews Breakthrough AI Innovations to Advance Professional Video Workflo...
15/04/2024
Zaxcom NAB Preview - Zaxcom's ZaxConvert Software is Now More Versatile & 10...
15/04/2024
Blackmagic Design Announces New Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton April 15, 2024
0 Comments
Advanced digital film camera in an incredibly versatile des...
15/04/2024
SmallHD's Free PageOS 6 Update Adds Powerful New Capabilities to All Current...
15/04/2024
SiliconCores patented Common Cathode driver chip delivers frame rates of 240 Hz and a refresh rate of 7680Hz, enabling slow motion, multi-camera view and multip...
15/04/2024
The UK-based virtual studio, sports and events graphics company has appointed Naphtali Cave into a newly created role to drive technical innovation and creativi...
15/04/2024
CBS's daytime panel talk show The Talk will end its run with a shortened 15th season, concluding the show in December, CBS confirmed Friday....
15/04/2024
Season four of Cesar Millan: Better Human Better Dog starts on Nat Geo Friday, A...
15/04/2024
In a notable leap forward for broadcasters planning to monetize their NextGen TV broadcasts, Sinclair has announced the launch of its Broadspan datacasting pl...
15/04/2024
Like a science fiction novel where artificial intelligence is involved in everything people do, the 2024 NAB Show is seeing artificial intelligence, and in part...
15/04/2024
Sustainability was one of the big topics at NAB Show last year, and this year the topic has matured within a media environment during technological and regulato...
15/04/2024
The cloud has offered significant on-demand availability for data storage without direct active management by the user. Increasingly, however, it isn't just...
15/04/2024
At first glance, it might seem a bit odd that the 2024 NAB Show is rolling out a new feature dubbed the Creator Lab....
15/04/2024
As the media and entertainment industry meets again in Las Vegas, NAB Show kicks off the beginning of its second century. Organizers describe an agenda suited t...
15/04/2024
Celebrating its 60th Anniversary this year, Ikegami USA will introduce four new additions to its range of broadcast-quality production equipment at the 2024 NAB...
15/04/2024
Digital Anarchy Debuts Major Update to its AI-Driven Digital Makeup and Skin Ret...
15/04/2024
Grass Valley Showcases Industry-Leading Innovations and Continued Growth Milesto...
15/04/2024
Hitachi Kokusai Demonstrates ST 2110 Studio Production Workflow
Brie Clayton April 14, 2024
0 Comments
To be shown at NAB Show 2024, new Interface Kit...
15/04/2024
Pebble Collaborates with NVIDIA to Bring PRIMA - Pebble's State-of-the-Art S...
15/04/2024
Need a summer job? Love baseball? Interested in finding out about a career in sports management, food service, hospitality and more? The Greenville Yard Gnomes ...
15/04/2024
Tonight on House of Zwide: Isaac asks Bra Zakes for help with any information he...
15/04/2024
Tonight on Skeem Saam: Phomolo threatens Pretty in an attempt to save LehasaDon't miss Monday, 15 April's riveting episode of South African soapie Skeem...
15/04/2024
Tonight on Scandal: Dintle turns to an old friend to assist with her missionDon't miss Monday, 15 April's riveting episode of South African soapie Scand...
15/04/2024
Christianity: Four people who claimed to be JesusChristianity is one of the world's dominant religions, with more than 80% of South Africans following this ...
15/04/2024
House of Zwide: Monday's episode, 15 April 2024 [VIDEO]Stay up to date with the latest episode of South African soapie House of Zwide on The South African w...
In a year where people have come to expect the unexpected, comedy podcasts can provide a welcome respite with laughter and lighthearted listening. 
