Teknikal Diffikulties: One In A Million

I’ll never forget the day I stumbled across Teknikal Diffikulties (abbreviated to TekDiff for people in a hurry). The concept grabbed me straight away, a one man sketch comedy that was well written, well paced and incredibly funny! How many times do you see all three of those in the same show? And...more importantly...why haven’t YOU heard it yet?

“Cayenne” Chris Conroy is the brainchild behind the project. Since early 2005 he has been working constantly on his audio comedy production. From the early days of short and unconfident episodes of silliness, Mister Conroy has taken critique and praise and become not just a proficient audio engineer but a very funny and likeable guy who knows he has a body of work he can be proud of.

In the past year, TekDiff has changed into something better-rounded; a serialised 30-minute comedy show that wouldn’t sound out of place on Radio 4. Like the best comedy shows of our generation, Cayenne can deploy a mass of memorable characters into bizarre, Python-esque “stream of consciousness” situations that always result in a laugh. A fan of TekDiff recently compiled a list of the entities dreamed up by Mister Conroy and brought to life through audio, and that list has now overshot three hundred!

What really blows me away about TekDiff is the attention to detail and the time and effort that goes into a project like this. Cayenne is a one-man army. He doesn’t get the actors round to read their parts, then edits the sound effects in. Cayenne does everything. Every voice you hear, every car horn you hear and every chuckle you expel is as a result of time, patience and talent of one man in a whisper room no bigger than a public phone box. I believe there’s a lot of people in the Podosphere that put a lot of effort into what they do, but I will go on the record and say that Chris Conroy is the hardest working man of them all.

Currently on the RSS feed Cayenne is finishing off an audio drama called “The Account” so for the funnies, you may need to dig back a bit. As for this “Account” thing I speak of...that’s another review for another time.

I think that if Cayenne could improve one thing about TekDiff it should be its marketing. The show is one of the best things on the Internet right now. It’s unique, it feels fresh and it could have mass appeal if only more people knew about it. I’ve searched high and low and there is no one person offering this sort of download one a near-weekly basis. If you’re a fan of Monty Python or any surrealist comedy, or if you have the ability to laugh and smile then I insist that you get ahold of Teknikal Diffikulties. Once you hear it and fall in love with it, tell others. Spread the word because Cayenne needs to be heard – he bloody deserves it!

The Matt Berry Podcast: A Short, Sharp Shambles

(Many thanks to guest reviewer Clive Pounds for weighing in on this Podcast!)

You can’t get into the iTunes comedy chart at the moment for the swathes of Absolute Radio or 6Music podcasts devoted to comedians who’ve helmed their stations – no matter how brief their tenure. The two of them, quite understandably, stick up podcasts for their regular presenters – but will also devote a whole ‘cast to one comedian who happens to be standing in for a couple of weeks – and that takes up valuable places in the ruddy chart! Great advertising for the broadcasters (both of which I really like) but terrible news for us lower-rent podcasters trying to get some recognition. Yes! MOAN, MOAN, MOAN!

I’m not sure if the Matt Berry podcast is one of these short-lived ad-spot podcasts, but I hope it isn’t. It’s either brilliantly inept or pre-programmed to seem so and, either way, it’s very, very funny. You probably know Berry from The Mighty Boosh, or love his work in Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace or, if you’re a devotee, will be able to quote his work in Snuff Box.

In his own vehicle, he’s able to demonstrate his musical side more easily, whilst also rudely interrupting guests with stingers, disrespecting Garth Marenghi’s vast canon of work to his face and, more worryingly, having surreal interior dialogues about his ability to DJ.

It’s a short, sharp shambles – free to download and highly recommended. Even if it only lasts for three shows.

As It Occurs To Me: From Fist To Fun

Richard Herring is a hard working guy! Not content to sit on his laurels from his success with former partner Stewart Lee, he’s forever writing, starring and talking! His return to form alongside Andrew Collins made a bold statement in the Podcast world, that you don’t need the backing of a corporation or a huge production suite to make an acclaimed Podcast. All it took was two friends, a stack of newspapers and a flimsy laptop in the attic to make the beloved Collings and Herrin Podcast. But Richard, a comedy writer extrodinaire, pined for something a bit meatier. True, he has been writing a nearly-daily blog on his website for the longest of times now but he needed something more. He wanted to perform his work and get back into radio shape. But surely he couldn’t do that without the backing of a corporation or a huge production suite? You obviously don’t know Richard that well do you?

Still fairly new to the world but already pride of place on the iTunes front page, As It Occurs To Me is Richard Herring’s take on the events of the previous week both in his personal life and the wide world around him. But this isn’t just another Pod-Ramble: Herring has enlisted the services of comedian Dan Tetsell and TV star “TV’s Emma Kennedy” and every week takes to the stage of the Leicester Square Theatre to perform his work in front of a paying audience. The result is broadcast, warts and all, to the world wide web twenty four short hours later.

And that’s what makes this concept so interesting. I went to see BBC Radio 4’s The Now Show recorded in London a few years and it’s incredible how much hits the cutting room floor when you hear the product back (they did use one of my jokes, which means that I can put “BBC Comedy writer” on my CV for time infinatum). With Richard, nothing touches said floor. You get everything, the jokes that didn’t quite make it, the re-takes, the fluffs and the corpsing. My initial reaction was that it was a lazy way to do it, but in hindsight it really makes the show likeable. Team Herring are sticking it to the man by proving that they’ve got the talent to make a weekly news show off their own backs and have no problem in laying it bare. They all know it’s not a polished product, but it makes it so much more charming and fun!

As It Occurs To Me (or, it’s catchy nickname of Ay-I-Otima) is another example of Richard Herring proving just how talented he can be when he sets his mind to it. He understands the new media world and knows how he can use it to his advantage. With a solid supporting cast of similar minded entertainers it’s worth a listen because there’s nothing else quite like this on the web. At least, as it occurs to me!

Watch With Mothers: Watching TV In Our Pants

Swineshead and Napoleon. Would you trust two names like this to advise you on the highs and lows of television? You should, they’ve been writing about it for long enough.

Watch With Mothers is primarily a blog-cum-community discussing the many intricacies and nuances of that glowing box in the corner of our living rooms (unless your Amish). Their jump from the page to the ears makes an excellent “free gift” for the readers. In short, if Watch With Mothers was the Beano, the Podcast would be a free lollipop taped to the front cover.

In their mostly-weekly address to the online nation, soft-spoken Londoner Swineshead and Sheffield’s broad-and-brash Napoleon pick a theme from the television world and share their thoughts, memories and exaggerations. The subjects are as broad as your options from the box itself; from sci-fi to game shows to the incomparable Paul Daniels, nothing is off the radar for these two regardless of their knowledge gaps (for best proof of this, check out their discussion on science fiction which probably tells you as much about the genre as a lemon sponge cake tells you about the iPhone). The discussion that follows, regardless of accuracy, is always entertaining for one reason or another; whether it is Napoleon making it up as he goes along or shouting one point over and over, or Swineshead lighting up a cigarette and exasperatedly trying to just get it done, the ramblings of two men who clearly love their TV seem to always produce small pieces of comedy gold.

Whilst the show may not deliver on what some of the sweepers promise – weekly informative discussion on current television – the fact that it doesn’t makes it all the more entertaining. Both men try their very hardest to keep the show on track but have a tendency to wonder off mentally to a world of floating breasts and Gary Glitter. It seems that Swineshead gets more flustered with the brain meandering than Napoleon, who’s happy to spend the afternoon talking about his bad guts and arguments with his missus. It’s this kind of chemistry that really makes the show work...if both men willingly went off on one, there would be anarchy and not necessarily entertainment. Because of this conflict in direction, the scribes have achieved a sense of Podcast Babylon: the sense of a topic, discussion, ramble, laughter and moving on.

In what I believe to be a slump in the Podcast world, Watch With Mothers is a happy surprise. With so much clogging up the drains of iTunes, Napoleon and Swineshead have floated to the surface and should be a part of your RSS realm today. In case you want another reason why Swineshead and Napoleon are two names you can trust with TV and comedy blogging, then go see what they do on WatchWithMother.net...unless you’re getting that diarrhoea seen to.

The Peacock and Gamble Podcast: Two's Company

When The Ray Peacock Podcast came to an end in early 2009 there was a terrible sadness. Whilst the fans wanted more of the trio of Ray Peacock, Ed Gamble and Raji James Who Used To Be On Eastenders But Ruined It, it was obvious that the three men in question felt the show had gone as far as it can go (in Ray’s case, far too far). After several months in the darkness, Ray and Ed made a dramatic return to the Podcast world sans “their little beige friend” for the renamed and rechristened “The Peacock And Gamble Podcast”.

Before the show began, I admittedly questioned how much comedy Ed and Ray could create without their popular fall guy. In retrospect, I should have not worried in the slightest; from the moment the opening, jaunty, pirate-esque music kicks in and an unnamed child welcomes us to the show you know you’re in good hands.

The content of the Podcast offers no variation from many of the usual comedy downloads, as it is two friends sharing a lot of laughs in no particular order. Peacock and Gamble have made, in the past, fleeting efforts at recurring segments but find that they have too much fun to stick to any rigid show structure. Normally, this would be a mark against the MP3 but I simply cannot bring myself to remove the lid from my red pen. Ray and Ed’s infantile humour and – as always – infectious laughter allows you to forget all about any continuity blunders (deliberate or otherwise) and leaves you chuckling along with them , sometimes in a guilty fashion. Listening to Ed and Ray is like eating a Dairy Milk before dinnertime; you know it’s wrong, childish and foolish but you just love it!

At time of writing Ed and Ray have twelve episodes of the Peacock and Gamble Podcast under their belt and – unlike in their previous serialised incarnation – show no signs of stopping. After flirting with the top ten of the iTunes chart and with a dedicated following of hundreds on Facebook who have encouraged the pair with gifts ranging from pasta sheets to “Waiting For Godot” tickets, Ed and Ray may ride this particular Podcast train into the hearts of thousands more people yet.

Peacock and Gamble Podcast Official Website

Brian & Georgina's Big Bang: Still Counting...

Podcasts can, in many cases, be a form of companionship to people. Music is all well and good on your portable music device but sometimes your favourite album doesn’t offer you a friendly voice, where a Podcast can. Many of my particular journeys on this great country’s far-from-great public transport system have been far from lonely, as they are shared with people from around the world in audio form. One pair I never travel without is Brian Luff and Georgina Sowerby, the hosts of Brian and Georgina’s Big Bang.

Both accomplished comedians and producers in their own right, Brian and Georgina reside in “leafy Crouch End” and from the outskirts of London they offer their own slanted, often times sexy, view on the world. From the moment the show starts, you feel like you’re sharing time with treasured friends. Brian and Georgina put their whole lives on display here leaving no stone unturned, and from Georgina’s infectious laughter to Brian’s mood swings it feels like you’re in the room with them.

Sowerby and Luff understand that a good Podcast can’t just be two people chatting nonchalantly and offer up recurring segments for listeners to contribute to. Weird news story segment – oddly titled “Dead Penguin” – has become the most popular feature in Sowerby and Luff’s Podcasting history. A close runner up for that crown is “Counting Things” which does exactly what it says on the tin. Listeners are invited to email Brian and Georgina and tell them what they’ve been counting this week. Believe it or not, this bizarre premise gets more correspondence than any other aspect of their show with people from every corner of the globe writing to tell everybody what they’ve been tallying in the last seven days. Proof, if needed, that when it comes to content simplicity is the key.

For half a decade, Brian Luff and Georgina Sowerby have provided consistent fun comedy for the iPod generation and are a shining example of a pair that “get it”. They are a big part of Comedy 365, the closest thing to a Podcast “channel” which features content from some of the funniest people to upload to RSS. True pioneers of the original Podcast boom, their consistency in the field should be applauded. Whilst they have adapted their style over the years they are still the Brian and Georgina we know and love and make excellent company for those long road trips or hefty delays at Birmingham New Street Station.

Brian and Georgina Official Website

The Mothpod: The Mayor Of New Media

Imagine if you had your entire musical knowledge emptied and you had to start all over again. Even with mainstream music you wouldn't know where to begin. This is why I think so many people are cautious of listening to Podsafe music, because it is such a vast area! Where do you start? Where do you end? It's scary stuff. Fans of Alternative and Rock music, though, have a guide into the caverns of independant music: that man is The Mothman.

The Mothpod is an hour-long weekly Podcast not about the host or the guests, but about the music. Zack Daggy, better known as The Mothman, is one of a kind. Spending his days in a pimped out wheelchair, Zack has one hand on the microphone and the other hand on the pulse of the independant scene. He doesn't discriminate or expect prior knowledge, he introduces your ears to sounds and people who have been hand selected by the man himself and he never fails to press all the right buttons.

The show itself is well produced and gives a real feeling of "community" to the Podcasting world, with numerous adverts for other Podcasts and independant workers all chasing the dream. Zack is open to give anybody and everybody a mention if they have something they want to get out in the Podosphere. It makes me wonder if Daggy has ever considered looking into the world of radio syndication...with the industry in a real state of flux in the US of A, maybe a two-hour National Mothman show could be a shot in the arm for the industry.

Zack's work doesn't end at the Mothpod, and Daggy is probably the hardest working Podcaster out there. Simply tying "Zack Daggy" into iTunes brings up a shed load of other projects that the ever-versatile Mothman is working on from panel chat shows like The Pod 5 to audio books. In the Podcast world, it's all about maintaining a presence, and Daggy understands that better than anybody.

There are a lot of music Podcasts out there, but all they seem to do is serve to fill in the gaps and make up the time between the host talking (some offenders have already been covered on this website), but Zack is one of a kind. Zack lives and breathes for the music, and his show is just that. The Mothman is an intelligent and likeable presenter who knows why you're there - for an incredible musical experiment every week. Daggy's success in the Podcasting field has translated into many other occupations, including music journalism and even book writing - with his horror novel Dark Worlds riding extremely high on online book charts everywhere. Zack has achieved this level of success by giving people exactly what they want - good music, full stop.

Subscribe by iTunes - The Mothpod Official Website