Podcasts
Shows worth listening to
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Become a memberDo you listen to interviews with comics before or after watching their specials?
I’ve started wondering whether hearing a comic explain their process first makes me watch the set more intelligently, or just makes me look for the things they’ve already told me are there. If you’re using interviews or podcasts to study stand-up, do you watch the special cold and listen afterwards, or hear the process first and then watch for the choices they describe? I suspect I learn more from doing it afterwards, but I’m also extremely capable of watching an hour of comedy and forgetting I was meant to be studying it.
Do you pause comedy podcasts to write, or keep listening?
When a podcast sparks an idea for a bit, do you stop immediately and chase it, or just dump a sentence in your notes and keep listening? I’ve lost good ideas by assuming I’ll remember them, but pausing every time my brain makes a connection turns a forty-minute episode into a small administrative career. Curious what people actually capture in the moment: premise, exact line, voice note, or just enough to find the thought again later.
Do you want comedy podcasts about craft, or comics just talking shop?
I keep finding the episodes I actually remember aren’t necessarily the ones explicitly teaching joke structure. Sometimes two comics picking apart why a bit changed is more useful than an hour of formal advice. When you recommend a comedy podcast to another comic, are you looking for proper craft/process discussion, interviews about how a set was built, or just good conversations where useful stuff comes out sideways?
Do you listen to comedy podcasts before a gig, or does it get in your head?
I like hearing comics talk about writing and process, but I’ve noticed I sometimes listen to loads of comedy on the way to a gig and arrive with everyone else’s rhythms bouncing around my head. Curious whether people use craft podcasts as part of getting into comedy mode, or deliberately stop listening on gig days so your own voice has a bit of space.
Best comedy podcasts for new comics to study
Looking for podcasts where working comics break down their material and process. Not just interview shows — ones where they actually talk craft.