Jimmy Dore has been podcasting Comedy and Everything Else since 2008, with comedian Stefane Zamorano and (for the first year) Todd Glass. I spoke with Dore during his October run at Punch Line in San Francisco about the death of radio, Kyle Cease, and the importance of editing out the dog at the door.
“Radio is dead, you know? Corporations took it over, and
look what happened. It’s horrible. Look at all these shows: Comedy and Everything Else, Never Not Funny, WTF. Shouldn’t these shows be on the radio?
This used to be the shit that radio did. They would have interesting
conversations with people who are interesting and artistic, and that’s totally
over.
“It was really about an experience. It wasn’t what it is
now: Nothing but corporate pabulum. Even public radio sucks now. NPR is so
fucking co-opted. It is so gross. You guys are one step above Brian Williams.
Congratulations.”
Wait. Doesn’t Dore also have a show on Pacifica Radio? Why,
yes, he does! But, he’s unafraid to voice his opinion that the podcast will
destroy radio.
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| Snazzy logo! |
“I think that radio is so fucking dead. Obviously, it makes
money because it’s still on. But, within 5 years, you’re going to have internet
in your car. And, then it’s over. And they don’t see that.
“These radio stations don’t go: ‘Maybe we should do
interesting shows right now, and try to start building, so that when we switch
over, we won’t lose anybody. We’ll have Adam Corolla.’ They just let Adam
Corolla go and start his own fucking radio network! They just let him do it!
Why wouldn’t you start your own podcasting network with Adam Corolla as your
anchor? Why wouldn’t you do that if you’re CBS Radio? How fucking stupid are
you?”
Dore is also unafraid to voice is opinion on virtually anything else, which is the ideal foundation for a medium without FCC regulations, without Clear Channel, without corporate sponsors.
Dore is also unafraid to voice is opinion on virtually anything else, which is the ideal foundation for a medium without FCC regulations, without Clear Channel, without corporate sponsors.
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| CAEE co-host Stef Zamorano |
CAEE is, at its heart, devoted to Dore’s love of talking
with fellow comics about comedy. “I didn’t have any goal in mind [for the
podcast]. I just wanted to do it. I didn’t know if anybody would listen, We had
no idea, we didn’t know anything. We were just doing it. I like to talk about
comedy. And more than that, I like to hear people talk about comedy.”
For comedy nerds, hearing how a 19-year-old Brian Regan got
his start bombing in front of kids before Mickey Mouse cartoons in a Tiffin,
Ohio movie theater is like Christmas morning. Dore and his wife Stefane Zamorano (and, at the time of the Regan episode, Todd Glass) give comics room to tell their stories, uninterrupted. LISTEN TO CAEE #39 or DOWNLOAD ON iTUNES
“I cannot imagine what it would have been like when I started
comedy if there were all these comedy podcasts to listen to. Because I just devoured anything I could get my hands on about standup
comedy. There were only like 2 or 3 books even written about comedy when I
started, and I read those. Anywhere I could hear a recording of George Carlin
or an interview with Woody Allen. And now, there’s just volumes of that stuff
available.”
Politics are also a big part of Dore’s comedy brain, and
when a guest (like, most recently, Frank Conniff) is receptive, news and issues
enter the conversation. However, Dore and Zamorano remain mindful that the
point of the show is to entertain. CAEE respects its audience’s time, and that
extends to smart editing and even an actual professional logo that always
downloads with the show.
JIMMY DORE: NOISY COATS & GOD'S DENTAL PLAN
JIMMY DORE: NOISY COATS & GOD'S DENTAL PLAN
“Tom Scharpling talks about how the production quality of
podcasts are bullshit. I don’t sample enough, I guess, but it’s amazing the
kind of shit people will put out. I was listening to a podcast one time where a
guy’s dog was scratching [at the door]. I heard him walk across the room, open
the door, let his dog in, close the door, walk back…like, you can’t edit that out?
So, you don’t give a shit. It isn’t interesting. You have to try a little
harder. How about: Have an idea when you
start this talk. How about: Have a place to go with your show.
“I’ve listened to other shows. Just like anything, most
shows aren’t good. That was the advantage of Todd and I already being
established comedians, we already had credentials.
“So, we decided to do our own show. And Jimmy Pardo had
started doing his, and we were like: Let’s do this. But we didn’t know how.
Technically it was beyond us.
“I walked into a Mac store one day and bumped into Matthew
Mira, who recognized me, he was a comedy fan, and introduced himself to me, and
I said 'Hey, we want to do a podcast, my friend Todd and I. Do you know how to
do it?' Matt said 'Yeah' ... which he didn’t, but he learned how to do it, and
that’s how we got started.
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| CAEE: Built on Matt Mira's lies. |
"I was lucky when I started to do the podcast, because I had
some skills. I didn’t have a lot, but I had some broadcasting skills going into
that. I mean there’s a big learning curve for me doing that radio show. The
first couple months were pretty brutal. Now I feel like I kinda know what
I’m doing.”
And then, there is the brave new world of comedy-related
investigative journalism, into which Dore waded (and then dove) with the
Kyle Cease/Comedy Bootcamp episodes. CAEE EPISODES 101, 102, 108, 110 AND 111
Dore devoted over seven unexpectedly compelling hours to exposing
the Scientologyish/Landmarky/Tony Robbinsesque traveling seminar that
is the ephemerally-priced Standup Bootcamp, run by comedians Kyle Cease and Louie Anderson. In addition to giving Cease five hours (in three episodes) of airtime to
answer questions about the industry-maligned Standup Bootcamp, Dore
interviewed comics who had taken the classes or had worked for Cease and
Anderson to promote the Bootcamp, as well as Matt Besser (co-founder of the UCB Theatre).
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| This is Kyle Cease. What's not to trust? |
"He just speaks in paragraphs and says nothing. It’s amazing
how much nothing he can say.”
The Bootcamp episodes proved to be a revelation for Dore,
beyond the subject at hand. “I’m very thankful for this Bootcamp thing that
happened. I did not expect it to turn into what it turned into, a month and a
half long thing. I felt like a real journalist at times, you know? People were
calling me, and I was interviewing them.
“The Standup Bootcamp is a sham. It’s very cult-like, and
it’s very empty. There’s no curriculum. It’s worse than Dianetics, because they
are preying on young comics. It’s just really weird to find that Louie Anderson
is that kind of a guy, isn’t it? What a weird way to find out he’s that kind of
a guy. I was like: You’re really soulless.”
While the Cease episodes had their detractors (who
mostly seemed to object to the amount of time devoted to the investigation),
the audience was strong. “The numbers for Kyle’s episodes are as high as any
episode we’ve ever done.”
CAEE's numbers have also remained strong through the show’s
changes. "When Todd Glass left the show at the 60th episode, I was
fully prepared to lose half our audience. We didn’t lose anybody. It just kept
growing as it normally did. So, I couldn’t be happier.”
With a few podcasts venturing into paid subscription territory, Dore wants to keep things as they are. The show makes money through listener donations, with plans for offering additional for-pay bonus episodes to those who are not monthly donors. "Monetizing is definitely my Achilles’ heel. I’m shocked
we’ve gotten this far: people donate every month. I feel valued, you know? I
would say maybe 1% of our listeners donate. One percent. But, people donate.
That’s how I like it."
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