Comedy on Vinyl

Happy New Year and happy satire.  Sure, that’s an expression.  One of the great, energetic musical comedians, Tom Lehrer is a must-listen (again, another real expression) for those bent on listening to comedy made by intelligent people.

Until recently, Lehrer was a university professor who got out of the satire business for a number of reasons.  He has been quoted as saying “Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Prize.”  That about sums it up.  Give it a listen.

Also, given Tumblr’s inherent limits (if we post more than 20… anythings, it starts pushing old episodes off of iTunes), we’re moving feed hosts, so there MAY be some iTunes issues in the coming days.  Please let us know if you notice an issue before we do: jason@comedyonvinyl.com

Subscribe on iTunes (And please leave your comments and rate us.)

Host: Jason Klamm

Producer: Mike Worden

This Week’s Guests: Dan Gomiller and Ari Jarvis

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, and are intended to sell more albums, not to endorse Vinyl Piracy.  Follow us on Twitter or at the Facebooks.

Tom Lehrer’s Official Website: http://www.tomlehrer.org/

Buy “That Was The Year That Was” on Vinyl: http://goo.gl/NS7yV

Episode 18 Direct Download

They’re back, and this time we cover the second album that made Jason and Dan become best friends while hanging out in a broken Ford Fiesta.  Yep, that’s Upstate New York for you.  This is, in fact, our first quadrilateral New York episode.

The appeal of this album is clear, even to comedy nerds who have never touched marijuana in their lives.  The characters are great, due in large part to Cheech’s voice characterizations, and the situations are not, in any way, difficult to understand.  Add the fact that Cheech & Chong were smart and considerate to add production values to something that could easily rely on mere mentions of illegal activity for its laughs, and you have one of the greatest comedy compilations out there.  It outshines the last album we covered, and - for Dan and I at least - rivals Monty Python Sings, which we will surely cover in the future.

Subscribe on iTunes (And please leave your comments and rate us.)

Host: Jason Klamm

Producer: Mike Worden

This Week’s Guests: Jeremy Guskin, Dan Gomiller

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, and are intended to sell more albums, not to endorse Vinyl Piracy.  Follow us on Twitter or at the Facebooks.

Cheech & Chong Official Site: CheechandChong.com

Buy “Greatest Hit” on vinyl: goo.gl/UCjAG

Episode 13 Direct Download

(Originally posted 9/7:)
Every once in a great while, you come across a comedy album that changes comedy.  Maybe it doesn’t change the nature of comedy, but it changes your understanding of what comedy can be.  Rarely can a stand-up do that on his own.  But then, it’s arguable that Steve Martin wasn’t just a stand-up, and that “Let’s Get Small” might not be a comedy album at all.  Which is fine.  Because it is ONE OF THE FUNNIEST THINGS YOU WILL EVER HEAR.  Period.

For the uninitiated, you might look at the album art and turn away.  But do yourself a favor - think of what you might already know about Steve Martin, and then look at this album cover again.  Think about why that guy would ever put a balloon on his head.  Then throw that assumption out, because there’s no pretension here.  It’s JUST COMEDY.  Pure and simple.  On that note: enjoy.

Subscribe on iTunes (And please leave your comments and rate us.  We need to know if you think we are sexy or not.)

Host: Jason Klamm

Producer: Mike Worden

This Week’s Guests: Mike Preister and Jeremy Guskin

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, and are intended to sell more albums, not to endorse Vinyl Piracy.  Follow us on Twitter or at the Facebooks.

Official Steve Martin Site: http://www.stevemartin.com/

Steve Martin’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/stevemartintogo

Buy “Let’s Get Small” on vinyl: http://goo.gl/wPlig

Comedy on Vinyl Live! A Tribute to Phil Hartman! A FREE show is on Saturday, September 17 in Hollywood - http://goo.gl/99yRb

Jeremy plays a bad guy in the upcoming NBC mini-series “Blackout” soon!

The official COV site is finally up at ComedyonVinyl.com

Here’s how I find our weekly theme music: http://goo.gl/S1f1r

Thank you,

Jason Klamm

Episode 9 Direct Download

Not stand-up.  Not sketch.  Just pure comedy.  The Firesign Theatre are, luckily, indescribable.  You owe it to yourself to find any of their comedy.  They have released 22 albums since the 70s and this is, frankly, their third.

This particular episode forgoes the convention of being clip-heavy, or even clip-light (there’s just the one, really) as we had a lot to talk about with this week’s guest, the incomparable Jeremy Guskin.  You’ve seen him all over your television screens, possibly asked him to leave, and then realized he was so real you thought he was in the room with you.  THAT is how good he is.  And this week he tells us how inspirational and confoundingly hilarious The Firesign Theatre is, and how important it is to him as a comedic person.

Subscribe on iTunes (And please leave your comments and rate us.  We need to know if you think we are sexy or not.)

Host: Jason Klamm

Producer/Contributor: Mike Worden

This Week’s Guest: Jeremy Guskin - Look at his tweets

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, and are intended to sell more albums, not to endorse Vinyl Piracy.  Follow us on Twitter or at the Facebooks - also, we finally have comedyonvinyl.com.

Official Firesign Theatre Site: http://www.firesigntheatre.com/

Buy “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers” on vinyl: http://goo.gl/CJ3tv

Jeremy and Jason co-star monthly in “A Drinking Game”: http://adrinkinggame.com

Mike is in “A Few Good Men”: http://goo.gl/DhXIl

Thank you,

Jason Klamm

Episode 6 Direct Download

This week we skip back to last week’s comedian’s (Richard Pryor) biggest influence.  Bill Cosby influenced two generations in two entirely different ways.  He broke ground with his stand up comedy, became the first black man to star in a TV drama, and then headed up what was arguably the most successful (financially and culturally) sitcom of the 80s.

This is Bill Cosby’s first album, and he’s in fine form.  Some bits would become classics and, while others are a bit dated, Bill’s conversational style was born here.  The classics that followed were just an extension of his ability to keep talking with you, and that’s why it remains timeless.  Damn the time period, damn the medium - telling a good story will always keep people listening.

For those of you who have been listening since episode 1 (or have gone back and check those first two out) - thanks a bunch for sitting through episodes one and two.  We understand that they might have been a bit… experimental for most tastes, but we hope there was something remotely enlightening in there that you could make out, even if it was subliminal.

For those of you annoyed with me being a smartass at the end of every podcast, here’s the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Comedy-on-Vinyl/181441438557765.  PLEASE JOIN!  It makes us look sexy, and helps us find more listeners.

Subscribe on iTunes (And please leave your comments and rate us.  We need to know if you think we are sexy or not.)

Host: Jason Klamm

Producer/Contributor: Mike Worden

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, and are intended to sell more albums, not to endorse Vinyl Piracy.  Follow us on Twitter or at the Facebooks.

Official Bill Cosby Site: http://www.billcosby.com/

Buy “Bill Cosby Is A Very Funny Fellow Right!” on Vinyl: http://goo.gl/RvcVH

Inferior (except for quality) Compact Disc: http://goo.gl/YnJBQ

Jason co-stars monthly in “A Drinking Game: http://adrinkinggame.com

Mike is in “A Few Good Men”:http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=223801767655604

Things/people mentioned in this episode:

Leonard, Part 6: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093405/combined

Thank you,

Jason Klamm

Episode 5 Direct Download

Welcome to the Comedy on Vinyl podcast, where we listen to the great comedy albums on their original medium, and talk about them.  Some of these albums were never even made available on cassette, giving us an even better reason to let you know/remind you they exist.

This week, (your host) Jason Klamm and (your guest) Dan Gomiller discuss Weird Al Yankovic’s sophomore album “In 3-D,” discussing Al’s career and his affect on/being a partial catalyst of their friendship.

In this episode, we also discuss the lack of architecture references in Weird Al’s songs.

Host: Jason Klamm
Guest: Dan Gomiller
Producer/Contributor: Mike Worden

Direct Download of Episode 1

Comedy on Vinyl was recorded at Fort Awesome Studios in beautiful downtown Burbank.  The music played in the background on these non-commercial (see: free) podcasts is used without permission, and is intended to sell more albums, not to  endorse Vinyl Piracy.  Follow us on Twitter or at the Facebooks.

Weird Al’s site: http://www.weirdal.com/
Buy “In 3-D” on vinyl: http://www.amazon.com/3-D-Weird-Al-Yankovic/dp/B000LTR44U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297022775&sr=1-1
Buy “In 3-D” on CD: http://www.amazon.com/3-D-Weird-Al-Yankovic/dp/B00000HZYC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297022725&sr=8-1

Things/entities/people/items/devices that are mentioned in this podcast:
Bermuda Schwartz
Billy Mays
The Shamwow Guy’s movie
Chris Hardwick
Tom Lennon
Chamillionaire

Thank you,

Jason Klamm

FMI:
Dan Gomiller: http://lordofdance.com
Jason Klamm: http://stolendress.com