Tom Rhodes Smart Camp

Brad Williams is on a rocket ship that just blasted off to superstardom. His favorite book is 'The Prince' by Niccolo Machiavelli and he tells me how he has navigated his life using this map. In this episode we talk about sad pathetic lonely fuckers who complain about comedy specials, how Andy Dick portrayed little people as caged animals and the future cage that Brad has waiting for him one day....

People of the earth! Throw down your weapons and rejoice in this excellent conversation I recorded with Brazilian comedy superstar Rafinha Bastos. In the past year Rafi has become one of my best friends. He lives in my building and we often talk comedy, help each other with jokes and go to the clubs together, all in service to our number one love in life, comedy. Now he is moving to New York City...

The last of my 3 part series on the life of Lord Byron concludes here with his exile in Switzerland and Italy and his death in Greece. Delight in this dashing dandy's style, his endless carousing with women and his adventurous spirit that eventually led to his death fighting for the independence of the Greeks who weren't willing to fight for it themselves. So many of his heroic moments can be off...

In the year 1812 Napoleon was defeated, the waltz was the new hit sensation of aristocratic Europe and Lord Byron became a literary superstar over night and the toast of high society England. He was born a gorgeous full lipped curly headed boy and as a man spent vastly to always be stylishly dressed and fancied himself a dandy. He was born with a club foot that he drag slide when he walked. He was...

Hooray & hallelujah! For episode 300 the lovable human Cameron Hattan has taken me out to the center of Lake Tahoe on a sail boat. After cruising around the majestic beauty of the lake we parked and went down in the cabin to record this episode. Cameron taught sailing on Lake Tahoe for many years, teaches me what a zephyr is and then he goes to intensely pull lines when our lives were in danger. S...

Bonjour y'all! It was a big week in the news! I am in Paris and experienced the hottest day ever recorded at 109 degrees. I beat the heat by jumping into the fountain at Saint Sulpice and climbing to the top. This week also saw the end of democracy and Donald Trump declaring  the 2020 election to be white people versus everyone else. Other big person news is revealed in this audio postcard from my...

Tony Woods is not only one of the most influential comedians ever to grip a microphone he is also one of the most naturally funny human beings you will ever meet in you in your life. This episode needs to other introduction other than in my opinion statues should be erected all over the world to Tony Woods for the amount of laughter he has brought to this suffering globe. No one makes me laugh har...

The life of Lord Byron was more adventurous and debauched than any rock & roll biography you have ever read. In the words of Lady Caroline Lamb, he was "mad, bad and dangerous to know." Get ready for your mind to be blown away by the life of the king of the romantic poets and learn why no hole was safe around this guy!!   When I was 10 years old my family lived in Wilmington, North Carolina in a h...

The legendary punk rock poet John Cooper Clarke returns to TRR Smart Camp! One of the highlights of my trip to the UK was getting to spend the day with JCC at his house and record this conversation at the very table where he writes and is currently writing his memoirs. We discuss the difficulty of writing the story of your life when your life continues to move forward. If anyone has a life story w...

In the past 5 years since I worked with Romesh Ranganathan at the Comedy Store in London it has been a joy watching his star rise to where he is now crushing it at the highest levels of the British comedy scene. He was kind enough to take a break from his current TV duties to sit down and record this conversation with me. In this soul and brain enriching episode we talk about his show Judge Romesh...

Beast master Reginald D Hunter has invited me to open for him on his UK theater tour called Facing The Beast. Now after our first week of performing in lovely old English theaters in Devon we sit down to iron out the problems of humanity with the greatest minds ever to assemble in Walthamstow. With Reginald D Hunter, Kash Yusaf, and Pete Johansson I cover, meander and collide with some of the most...

"So let us face up to the blows of circumstance and be aware that whatever happens is never as serious as rumor makes it out to be." Get to know the life and words of Seneca! TRR Smart Camp #293!   In celebration of little bitches everywhere I'm highlighting Seneca because his thoughts were immortal and they should live in your brain. He was a contradiction because in his own life he failed to liv...

Jon Stringer is a lovable human and a top quality comedian! When I was young many older comedians I admired helped me up along the way and I'll never forget them for that because their endorsements opened doors for me that allowed me to thrive in a very competitive business.   In the pay it forward tradition I want the comedy world and the regular human world to know about Jon Stringer. I met Jon...

Insatiable Curiosity with Jim Gaffigan on episode 291 Tom Rhodes Radio Smart Camp! >     Jim Gaffigan and I both have an insatiable curiosity to travel and educate ourselves through world travel. As a comedian your experiences fuel your material and when you are forced out of your comfort zone is when you are exposed to new ideas. Jim is fresh off the plane from Asia, so we talk about Asian histor...

W. Kamau Bell has the most important show on television where he examines race in America and in this episode he tells me how close we are to Civil war and what to expect. I've know Kamau since my old San Francisco days and he is a great old friend that I can cover the current most important questions with him like, will rich white people be in charge forever? How does the electoral college system...

Ari was already one of my favorite human beings on the planet to hang out with and then he went above and beyond giving me the gift that would truly improve my life.   Ari is the one who is responsible for getting Delta airlines to restore my Diamond medallion status. For this I will be forever grateful and his dear listeners who rallied to his call to help saved me from a year of baggage fees and...

Every year when I do San Francisco I appear on Rick Tittle's sports radio talk show and I love it because we talk about everything but sports. He is a voracious reader like I am and I love to free form riff talk and share important knowledge with each other. Now I turn the microphone on him to squeeze the answers out of him and ninja joust with our collective intelligence. Learn now how WW I chang...

In this episode I rejoice in the glory of a Florida back porch with my oldest best friend in life Lou Angelwolf. On his back porch in Palm Harbor, Florida we discuss the secret language of trees, evolution, reincarnation, UFOs, and how the responsibility of paying rent keeps us from following our creative instincts. On this first day of Spring I am being healed by the joy of having deep meaningful...

Today started out so shitty for me. First I woke up to a text message from a woman in Florida who I was ready to pledge my alliance to telling me that she was dropping the Guillotine on the neck of our beginning relationship which hurt my feelings greatly. And she let me know that I am a self centered narcissist but I knew that already because that is the kind of person that it takes to do stand u...

At any one time there are more people who are suffering than there are who are happy, many more people who are heartbroken than there are who are in love. Apparently the dark sad days I'm living have increased my fans and friendships. This week I learned how because I am hurting and going through troubles that makes it possible for more people to relate to me and get closer to me. Electronic messa...

Shalom Amigos y Amigas! After spending this year mostly by myself in my apartment I have found light in the eyes of the Mexican cops who wanted to squeeze me for money in Tulum and in the dead cat of an Uber driver. Most importantly it was the words from my listeners and people who care that has gotten me through these cold winter days of the nuclear break up. These have not been my best days but...

My life is falling apart and I am a mess! This year has broken me physically and emotionally. My amazing wife Ashna is divorcing me and I am at a low point in my life. What better time to take my very Christian mother to the holy land to visit Jerusalem! What good is a spiritual pilgrimage unless your life is in the toilet! After a very long break of not putting out episodes because I had nothing...

If you come to Ireland you must come to Galway, and if you come to Galway you must take Jonathan Hannon's walkinghistory.ie tour. Jonathan Hannon is my favorite kind of human, a knowledgable historian, passionate storyteller. Overflowing with an abundance of knowledge on a variety of topics, but a special in Irish history and culture, Ashna and I were happy to have taken his tour the last time we...

Rui Xara put on a comedy festival in Porto just to bring me to Portugal for the first time. He bent over backwards to show me everything that is great about Portugal and now I'm in love with the place. In this episode we talk about all of the glorious things about Portugal and why Porto is a better city than Lisbon. He is a beautiful man and he is now my friend for life, that is why it is my pleas...

Joe DeRosa is a beast killer of a comedian. He is obsessed with death and destroying the institutions that hold us back from evolving spiritually. He is against anything that impedes our own personal happiness. I love conversing with him and delighting in his view of the world. We crossed paths in Atlanta and sat down for this gab session to enrich your life with wisdom and laughter. Hooray for hu...