Stir Cheat Sheet: 4 made-in-Vancouver comedy podcasts to get you through fall and winter
Pandemic got you down? These local podcasts will help lift you up
Alicia Tobin and Jessica Delisle are the “co-ghosts” of Retail Nightmares.
IF THE THOUGHT of a bleak, wet Vancouver winter during a global pandemic is just too much to bear, get ready to hunker down safe at home with some primo comedy podcasts. Here are four that are made right here at home, so you can feel good about supporting local with your bubbled LOLing.
This Sounds Serious
If you liked This Is That, you’ll love this fictional crime podcast by the same team. (And no, Kelly&Kelly, we haven’t forgiven you for putting an end to the fabricated current affairs show that ran on CBC Radio.) A Castbox original, This Sounds Serious is narrated by investigative journalist Gwen Radford (Carly Pope), who in Season 1 unravels the tale of Chuck Bronstadt, a famous Florida weatherman who was found dead in his water bed, and who in Season 2 details her search for Melissa Turner, “the country's most missing person”. Those two seasons alone racked up more than 4 million downloads worldwide. Season 3, “Grand Casino”, sees Radford get inside the mind of a con man.
Stop Podcasting Yourself
Hosts Graham Clark and Dave Shumka connect with a new guest every week and chitchat about whatever on this Maximum Fun show. Topics that came up with actor/podcaster Janie Haddad Tompkins, for instance, included Johnny Depp and eating cat food (not Johnny Depp eating cat food). With comedian Steph Tolev, there was talk of a puppy named Susan, Toronto thrift shops, and parents who don’t let their kids watch TV. The conversation with stand-up comedian Nikki Glaser, meanwhile, veered from weight loss to white bread to being seen naked by ghosts. You get the idea.
Retail Nightmares
If you’ve ever worked in retail or customer service, you’ll be able to relate to (and laugh with) “co-ghosts” Alicia Tobin, a comedian, and Jessica Delisle, musician, and their guests. Besides sharing horror stories that inevitably come up anytime you’re dealing with the public, there’s talk about food, family, “puppos”, and more.
Science Telephone
Who didn’t love the game of telephone when they were little? That’s the one where you whisper a saying in someone’s ear then it makes its way around the room and winds up completely and hilariously garbled by the end. It’s the same concept with Avo Media’s Science Telephone, except that its hosts collaborate with real, live scientists. One of these smart people explains their research to a comedian (from a rotating guest list) who then explains it to another comic and so on. Listeners get to hear solid scientific facts become lost in highly entertaining translation. You’ll laugh, you’ll learn, you’ll long for Chemistry 10.
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