“Good One” Podcast Gets Close as It Can to Answering the Question of How Comedians “Make” Comedy
Though there are dozens upon dozens of comedy podcasts that are essentially just about comedy, very few get to the nitty gritty of the actual art form and craft of it. Stuart Goldsmith’s Comedian’s Comedian is a very good one, but Stuart is based in the UK and, as such, has more access to comedians from across the pond than those from those in the States (i.e. ones you’re probably more familiar with).
Good One: A Podcast About Jokes picks up the ball wonderfully for American comedy with Vulture’s senior editor Jesse David Fox dissecting a single joke by his guests, which happens to include Reggie Watts, Bo Burnham, Cameron Esposito, Patton Oswalt, Bill Burr, Jimmy Fallon, Will Forte, and Taika Waititi to only name a few.
Fox digs with guests (you’ll notice it’s more than just stand-ups, which we very much dig) in at each joke/bit/scene and the greater context in which it exists without veering off into nostalgic territory completely. With the idea that there is no single way of “doing” comedy, especially with how subjective it can be, this podcast captures the many facets of how very successful comedians figured out how to make strangers laugh on their own terms.
The just released Reggie Watts episode is pretty enlightening if you’ve (like so many people probably) have asked “How does Reggie come up with that?”
Get into Good One over at Headgum here or wherever you listen to podcasts.
