The Comedy On Vinyl Podcast

Janet Varney stops by her own home to delve into Albert Brooks’ classic “Comedy Minus One” for our second go-round with this album.  This time, we get a picture of an entirely new experience – namely, someone who grew up without the script to the act-along segment!  This made for an excessively surreal experience with this already experimental album. Host:  Jason Klamm Prod...

This week I’m joined by the amazingly talented James Bladon (the music for Superego and their alter-egos The Journeymen and the music editor for countless TV shows) and my great friend and talented person in his own right Jeremy Guskin to discuss (deep breath) “The Album Of The Soundtrack Of The Trailer Of The Film Of Monty Python And The Holy Grail.”  It would’ve been wort...

The awesome Greg Benson breaks down the first Credibility Gap album we’ve covered, track-by-track.  It’s his favorite, and it’s not hard to see why.  Irreverent, razor-sharp satire with the kind of production values anyone would be jealous of.  It’s a shame they made so few records together, but this one is of great value, loaded with pop culture satire without leaning on a...

Of course, the full title is “How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You’re Not Anywhere at All,” and it’s one of the great Firesign albums.  One half Firesign fever dream, and the other half a long-form Nick Danger adventure, this is the first album that ever exposed Firesign to me as a kid who totally didn’t get it.  It would be awhile before I delved back into F...

He inspired the guy who inspired this podcast.  He’s the ultimate curator of novelty music, a music historian, an expert on the history of recorded sound and of comedy, and he was the sound of a generation of comedy lovers.  He might have invented what it means to be a comedy nerd, whether you grew up listening to him on terrestrial radio, or not.  We sat down to talk about his personal hist...

How has it taken this long to get to what might be the most famous comedy album of all time?  Simple: not one guest has requested it.  So this week, we start changing the format up.  Starting soon, we’re going to be giving guests who don’t have an album in mind, or who pick a CD or a cassette, another option – listen to something you haven’t heard.  This week, friend of the...

This week’s episode is not really about one comedy album, but about the strange case of a burned commune, the family that lived there, and the man who has been studying the site for thirty-plus years, using vinyl found at the scene as one of his tools.  Among them, one comedy album (a Cosby album, as it happens).  We talk about what that means and what it’s like to work on a site that&...

No episode this week, because Jason is cutting two long interviews into one.  It’ll be worth the wait.  In the meantime, look at the record wall.  For a whole week. Comedy on Vinyl is recorded at Fort Awesome Studios in beautiful downtown Burbank. The samples played in these non-commercial (see: free) podcasts are used without permission under the provisions of fair use for the sake of comme...

Josia Elliott comes on the show to talk about David Cross’s emotionally-charged “Shut Up, You Fucking Baby.”  Replete with track titles from some imaginary stand-up set, this album is a great time capsule, and still really relevant.  It also had a vinyl re-release, courtesy of Stand Up! Records.  Josia also talks with Jason about growing up in a rural area and how this album help...

This week, a guy I wish I’d discovered much sooner stops by to discuss a guy I wish was still as funny as he once was.  Jim Hamilton is one of the few consistent one-liner comics out there (you should listen to his album “Poems About the Ocean” ASAP, the cover of which was designed by friend of the show Dave Kloc and the entirety of which was released by other friend of the show...

The Dork Forest ‘s own Jackie Kashian stops by to talk about Lenny Bruce’s hit-and-miss American, that does happen to contain a mutual favorite sketch.  Yes, a stand-up album seemingly mashed together with oddly different-sounding performances and also a sketch.  Still, worth a listen for a couple bits.  Jackie talks first hearing this album and how Sam Kinison screaming at her got her...

The awesome Tess Barker of the hilarious Lady to Lady Podcast stops by this week (and by this week, I mean several months ago, due to some crappy technical issues) to talk about Katt Williams.  We have a ton of fun talking about how Katt’s comedy hits home with Tess and why she quit acting to concentrate on stand-up. Host:  Jason Klamm Producer:  Mike Worden This Week’s Guest:  Tess Barker T...

This week, with author Mark Miller, we revisit Robert Klein, this time covering the fantastic “Child of the 50s.”  Mark talks about his love of comedy, and starting out in stand up in San Francisco, and moving on to writing for Carol Burnett, Jimmy Walker and Dana Carvey, to name a few. Host:  Jason Klamm Producer:  Mike Worden This Week’s Guest:  Mark Miller MarkMillerHumorist.com Buy...

Joseph Scrimshaw is an hilarious gentleman with a seemingly odd choice for this week’s discussion – Frank Sinatra’s “The Tea Break” monologue from the 1966 album “Sinatra At The Sands.”  Not only is this Sinatra doling out some well-honed bits, the monologue’s honesty and the atmosphere it creates were important moments for Joseph in discovering what...

Matt Belknap co-founded AST Records and co-hosts Never Not Funny with Jimmy Pardo.  We talk about how Steven Wright started Matt off on a world of live comedy, doing stand up, producing comedy, and break down Steven Wright’s not-quite-one-liner style. Host:  Jason Klamm Producer:  Mike Worden This Week’s Guest:  Matt Belknap AST Records Never Not Funny Buy “I Have A Pony” Comedy on Vinyl is...

Kliph Nesteroff is one of the great comedy historians of today, for the same reason he picked a comedian you haven’t heard of.  Dick Davy has all the lasting strength of many of the great comedians from the late 60s you already know, which made this a really fun discussion.  Kliph’s book “The Comedians” comes out this fall, and we couldn’t be more excited to read it....

Will Byrne runs the fantastic Military Moments podcast, and comedy runs in the family (Will was his brother Steve’s.stand-in on “Sullivan & Son”).  He picked Billy Crystal’s only album, a snapshot of the 80s, catch-phrase-comedy, and how a comic mixed stand-up with the most zeitgeisty characters I’ve heard on an album, yet. Host:  Jason Klamm Producer:  Mike Worde...

Margie Mintz is funny, insightful, and organizes some great shows in LA.  This is a wonderful episode where we talk about her influences and her personal approach to comedy.  We also talk about Mike Birbiglia for the first time on the show, and while we tend to resist albums that never got a vinyl release, this is truly a solid album, worth talking about and re-listening to. Host:  Jason Klamm Pro...

He’s been a voice in everything you’ve ever liked, and this week he exposes us to a record by Peter Ustinov that is nothing if not incredibly ambitious.  Ustinov uses his vocal versatility to portray every character and EVERY CAR in this one-hour record.  It inspired Neil, so was well worth the listen. Host:  Jason Klamm Producer:  Mike Worden This Week’s Guest: Neil Ross NeilRoss.com...

When you first saw him as Langly on The X-Files, you had no idea that behind that facade was a man who has heard Swedish comedians covering George Carlin.  Yes, covering a Carlin bit.  Dean Haglund talks about his early comedy influences, his first albums, learning stand-up and studying comedy, and also gives us an LA history lesson. Host:  Jason Klamm Producer:  Mike Worden This Week’s Guest:  De...

He directed the first and final episodes (and much in between) of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Cosby Show.  His show business career started on I Love Lucy.  He directed the pilots for The Bob Newhart Show and Golden Girls, to name only two.  This week, we talk about his storied career and what makes a good director.  Where’s the vinyl?  Well, he directed the first million-album-selling...

Cole Stratton weirds it up this week with one of my new favorite comedy albums.  Albert Brooks again bends the concept of the comedy record back when it was a medium you could still do that with and confuse people to their delight.  It ends with a track where you get to perform a scripted sketch with Albert “on stage.”  Thanks again to Cole for introducing us to this. Host:  Jason Klam...

This week, the Comedy on Vinyl podcast and the Dan and Jay’s Comedy Hour podcast cross paths.  Right in the middle of wrapping up their latest sketch comedy album  Ho, Christmas Tree! , an increasingly drunk Jay (Jason to you vinyl folks) and Dan discuss the creation of this, the SMALLEST COMEDY ALBUM IN HISTORY .  At 1.7cm square, the album comes packaged on a MicroSD card packed with the a...

For her second time around on the show, the hilarious Andie Bolt talks about the soundtrack to a great movie, “Ghostbusters,” and tells us about her own film, “WowMom,” which is about her mom coping with cancer by playing World of Warcraft, which you can donate to here .  We’re also joined by Jeremy and Allen, both friends of the show and two of my co-stars in “...

Oh, this guy’s the best.  Jimmy Pardo wanted to talk about Richard Lewis’s TV special “I’m In Pain,” so we discuss the influence of Richard and a slew of other comedians on Jimmy’s style, as well as Jimmy’s jump out of the square world of the music industry to do comedy full-time.  We also talk about the importance of having a partner in comedy, even for a...