Tom Rhodes Smart Camp

This episode was recorded in Amsterdam. Sander Borst is the quintessential Dutch bad ass. He is one of my oldest friends in Amsterdam. I met him when I first came to Holland to perform at Toomler comedy club where he was a bartender. He was performing in a punk rock band called the Skidmarks when we met and we hit it off easily by talking about music together. After I moved to Amsterdam I had many...

This episode was recorded in Galway, Ireland I met Reginald D. Hunter many years ago in Manchester while hanging out with a group of comedians. It was before he became the comedy superstar that he is today. I liked him when we met so I have been cheering him on through the ensuing years when I saw him on countless British panel chat shows. Because he is from Georgia I felt Southern comedic pride w...

This episode was recorded in Las Vegas. I want to pay tribute to the Amazing Johnathan before he drops dead. We all avoid the thought of death and superstitiously try to avoid the topic but that dirty whore will strike each of us. The Amazing Johnathan has a heart ailment and his doctors have told him that if his medicine doesn't work he only has one year to live. Imagine what you would do if you...

This episode was recorded in Los Angeles. Eddie Pepitone is the darling of the underground comedy scene of Los Angeles. For an older man without a full head of hair to kick so much ass in the city where youth and beauty reigns eternal he must be respected for what he has accomplished. His comedy style is the man yelling to the people who are in the house that is one fire but they cannot see that t...

This episode was recorded in London. Let it be known to the the universe that Tom Rhodes Radio gives Mark Farrelly's one man show 'Quentin Crisp' a 5 star review. This show invites libation imbibement and encourages you to be yourself whatever you wish that self to be. Being exactly what you are even if that is a bore. Mark was doing his Quentin Crisp solo show at the Gilded Balloon for the Edinbu...

This episode was recorded in Edinburgh, Scotland. Rhys Nicholson is a star waiting to happen. He is visually captivating with his flaming orange read hair, thick black glasses, high cheek bones, chiseled jawline with powdered make up and his smart style of dress.  His comedy is frank, up front, straight forward, unabashed and unapologetic even when he talks about the details of his sex life. In hi...

This episode was recorded in Edinburgh, Scotland   In my opinion Jo Caulfield has the sexiest speaking voice in all of the English speaking comedy world. Her tone, elocution and educated accent is one that makes me tingle like a comfort food and if I owned my own television network she would be the voice of my channel.    I first met Jo when I first started coming to London in the late 1990s. I ha...

This episode was recorded in Edinburgh. Lynn Ruth Miller is an inspiring risk taker who is attacking life as if she were someone 20 years old. Humbling to learn that she is 80 years old and just moved to Brighton, England last year to pursue her career as a stand up comedian. Born in 1933 she remembers the war years in a way that will surprise you and her opinion of America is ice cold honest from...

This episode was recorded in San Francisco. I first met Margaret Cho when I moved to San Francisco in the early 1990s and because we both developed and came up together she is a friend that I am always cheering for and who I will always be loyal too. I could go for years without seeing Margaret but when we do it is like we never lost a minute together. I have been communicating with her for the pa...

This episode was recorded in Los Angeles. Aisha Tyler is an iconic woman who has conquered the stages of stand up comedy, the world of network television and the New York Times bestsellers list of book authors. I met Aisha Tyler in the 1990s in the golden age San Francisco comedy. I remember Aisha when she was starting out as a comedian there and I remember that she always had a pure heart in her...

This episode was recorded in Edinburgh, Scotland. Karen Koren is the queen mother of the Edinburgh Fringe festival. She has produced countless shows for the festival for over 30 years and it the operator of the Gilded Balloon, one of the cornerstone venues of the entire Fringe.  It was important for me to do my Edinburgh debut with Karen at the Gilded Balloon because of a disaster I had experience...

In comedy there are certain wise men you meet on your journey that are priceless to talk with because they possess the glow of knowledge you hope to gain when you one day pass from warrior to wise man. Tommy Sheppard owns The Stand comedy club in Edinburgh which is the heart and soul of Scottish comedy. It is as perfect of a comedy club to start in as the Cavern club in Liverpool was for the Beatl...

★★★★★   Tom Rhodes Radio Review for Zoe Lyons in ‘Mustard Cutter’ Zoe Lyons is one of the best performers that I saw at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I love her style, her energy, her pacing and her material. Often when you are seeing multiple shows in a day at the Fringe festival you will look at your watch during a performance and I'm happy to report I did not look at my watch once whil...

Glenn Wool is one of the finest comedy exports Canada has ever produced. His comedy is philosophical, heartfelt and endearing. He is also one of the nicest human beings I have ever come across in all my years traveling the globe. I met Glenn many years ago at the Comedy Store in London and have since worked with him at comedy festivals all over the world. He is one of the few comedians like myself...

★★★★★    Tom Rhodes Radio  Review for  Hannah Gadsby  in  ‘The Exhibitionist’ Hannah Gadsby is one of the brightest shining lights on the world wide comedy circuit. An innately gifted story teller whose tales of awkward humiliation and personal triumph will have anyone from any walk of life or age group howling with laughter. I first met Hannah 4 years ago in Perth, Australia when we were both doi...

Lucie Pohl ★★★★★    Tom Rhodes Radio  Review   for  Lucie Pohl  in  ‘Hi, Hitler!’ Tom Rhodes Radio give the show 'Hi, Hitler' by Lucie Pohl a 5 star review! This show is so fast paced, character driven and funny that I saw it twice. The eye catching title of this show comes from the adorable tale of how Lucie Pohl as a child thought the Nazis were saying hi to Hitler and not heal Hitler. Is it pos...

This episode was recorded in Edinburgh, Scotland. When I moved to San Francisco in 1991 openly gay comedians did not play at the regular clubs in the city, they performed at Josie's cabaret and juice joint in the Castro. It was at Josie's that I first saw Scott Capurro perform. He stood out among all the other comedians that night because he made my sides hurt with laughter.  It was only a few yea...

This episode was recorded in Edinburgh, Scotland Andrew Maxwell is the kind of guy who you would want on your side in a debating hall, on the football pitch or in a barroom fistfight. Andrew is one of the few human beings that tickles the living shit out of me just to hang out with him. He is a street fighting man originally from Dublin, Ireland who has lived in London for the past 20 years.  I fi...

 ★★★★★   Tom Rhodes Radio Review for Yisrael Campbell in ‘Circumcise me’ Greetings from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival!  At a later date I will talk about my personal history with this festival but for now I want to tell you about the magnificence of the biggest and greatest arts festival in the world. There are literally thousands of shows happening here on all manner of topics but the one thing t...

A few weeks ago I performed at Helium in Portland and Lucas Molandes was my feature act. Lucas is from Austin, Texas. Austin is a spiritual center of edgy original comedy and Lucas decided to take the trip West with two other Austin comedians, Ramin Nazer and Sara Reihani. The set up showcase sets in California and other gigs around the North West. They called it 'The Good Grief' tour and I got to...

This episode was recorded in Seoul, Korea Nevada Rhodes not only has the best last name ever he is a one man volcano bursting with fabulosity. He is tall, blonde and muscular living in Seoul, Korea where he not only speaks fluent Korean he is also one of the stars of the long running hit Korean TV show 'Strange TV Surprise!' He also does stand up comedy and that is how I met him.  I love traveling...

This episode was recorded in Kuala Lumpur. Jonathan Atherton built the comedy scene in Singapore and now he just opened the first full time comedy club in Kuala Lumpur called The Crack House. When he first appeared on my podcast one year ago I got a tremendous response from people saying that thought he was the most interesting man in the world. His stories about selling shoes to prostitutes in Ke...

MinhHa Pham is a comedy superstar waiting to happen. She just needs a few more years of experience and developing material. Her love of comedy is pure and she is from the most unlikely breeding ground for comedians of Hanoi, Vietnam. I met her last year while I was performing in Hong Kong and she told me all about the new young comedy scene that is happening in Hanoi and it peeked my desire to ret...

This episode was recorded in Los Angeles. I first met Jason John Whitehead about ten years ago at The Comedy Store in Sydney. Then I worked with him in Jakarta and Bali. He is from Nova Scotia, Canada, started being a comedian in Edinburgh and cut his teeth Manchester and London. He has done nine one hour Edinburgh shows. He is also a veteran of the world wide comedy circuits and now he is living...

This episode was recorded in Burbank, California. Ritch Shydner is a comedian I always looked up to an admired while I was growing up, having watched him on Johnny Carson, David Lettermen and his HBO special. I had known him for years before I ever knew that he was there at El Brookman's in Washington D.C. the night my father took me there to see comedy when I was 12 years old. That night changed...