Tag Archives: tom scharpling

The Funny

Podcastin’ with Gary and Roy

This week’s edition of The Best Show on WFMU brought another gem (what else is new?). Host Tom Scharpling did a one-man two-guy podcast–Podcastin’ with Gary and Roy!–complete with blown out mikes, widely divergent sound levels, and awful music. For some reason, calling it Podcastin’ cracks me up. It vaguely reminds me of The Hangin’ Out Gang.

Poorly produced podcasts might seem like low-hanging fruit, and they totally are, but I think sometimes the joke isn’t in the target, it’s how you aim at it. Several folks at FriendsofTom.com expressed the desire to hear these bits isolated, without any setup, as if they were actual podcasts, and I have done just that. Please enjoy these three “episodes” of Podcastin’ with Gary St. Cloud and Roy Harburton (or “Jiggle the Handle,” as I believe @eastwes referred to it, a reference to Tom’s denouncing of podcasts as bastions of “toilet talk”).

You may also be happy to know that Gary and Roy are already on Twitter. Follow away.

Podcastin’ pt. 1

[audio:http://66.147.244.95/~scratci7/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/bs110215_podcastin11.mp3|titles=Podcastin’ with Gary and Roy (part 1): Best Show, February 15, 2011]

Podcastin’ pt. 2

[audio:http://66.147.244.95/~scratci7/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/bs110215_podcastin21.mp3|titles=Podcastin’ with Gary and Roy (part 2): Best Show, February 15, 2011]

Podcastin’ pt. 3

[audio:http://66.147.244.95/~scratci7/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/bs110215_podcastin31.mp3|titles=Podcastin’ with Gary and Roy (part 3): Best Show, February 15, 2011]
The Funny, Tuneage

Tom Scharpling + New Pornographers = Video Greatness

So Tom Scharpling directed a video for the New Pornographers for their song “Moves,” and it is jam-packed with so much awesomeness, I think the sheer weight of it might affect the earth’s axis. See?

I don’t even know where to begin. Todd Barry as a harried Other Music employee. Ted Leo in drag. Jon Wurster inhabiting the role of “A.C. Newman”. Mike Lisk (aka @APMike) turning in a truly deranged performance (though I’m not sure how much of it was performing and how much was Mike being Mike). “Independent Spirit Award winner” Kevin Corrigan, looking very Kevin Corrigan-y. Horatio Sanz, Julie Klausner, Wyatt Cenac…hold on, let me catch my breath…

Plus cameos from many other comedy and musical giants, and enough Best Show-related easter eggs to delight sharp-eyed completists (like me).

Oh, and it starts with a trailer for a fake movie starring Paul Rudd and Bill Hader (Expectant Dads). If you want more than this video can give you, you must eat diamonds for breakfast, pal.

The Funny

The Best You Can Do Is Be Worse Than The Best Show

tbsowfmu.jpgThis week marked the tenth anniversary of the birth of the one of the most unique pieces of entertainment since sliced bread (which was once considered very entertaining). I speak of The Best Show on WFMU, which made its debut on October 10, 2000. If you read this site, you know I’m a huge fan, and I’ve written about the show or alluded to it hundreds of times. But I felt I couldn’t let this date pass without marking the occasion in some way, because it is literally one of my favorite things ever, for many different reasons.

It’s hard to even describe what it is to someone who hasn’t heard the show. The vital statistics are this: It’s a three-hour extravaganza of “mirth, music, and mayhem” hosted by Tom Scharpling. Phone calls are taken, some from for-real listeners (usually on some sort of topic), some from the imaginary citizens of Newbridge, New Jersey, a town whose wealth of intertwined characters put the Marvel Universe to shame.

There’s more to the show than this. Much, much more, but don’t worry, we’ll get there. But you should probably know, if you don’t already, that it’s the funniest thing going.

I came fairly late to the Best Show Bandwagon, which makes zero sense because I’ve been listening to WFMU since college. I probably listened to every show on the station but The Best Show–not on purpose, just out of happenstance. Not only that, but I was also a fan of many people and things in the realm of comedy who were either fans of the show or associated with it in some way (like Jon Benjamin and Jon Glaser, who used to be on the show quite often). I even took an improv class at the UCB Theatre, which has many Best Show fans amongst its faculty. Against all odds, I remained impossibly, blissfully ignorant of its existence.

Then, three years ago, I saw Patton Oswalt announce on his MySpace page (that’s how long ago this was! MySpace still existed!) that he was going to be an in-studio guest on The Best Show. Since Patton is one of my favoritest comedians of all time, I gave it a listen. By the end of this episode, I had the same feeling I had when watching Kids in the Hall for the first time, or Mr. Show or MST3K. That wonderful, almost frightening sensation of “where has this been all my life?”, something that seems to vibrate on the exact same wavelength as you.
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