The Long Shot is the combined efforts of the mountainous host Sean Conroy, zealously joyous Amber Kenny, immaculate zingmeister Jamie Flam, and the inimitable Eddie Pepitone.
What the Long Shot has in spades is a triumphant dynamic between the four of them. Seeing as there are four regulars, and the occasional guest, the job is Sean’s to try and keep the conversation, characters and ideas in check. It almost always falls to him to cut off a finishing bit, or to restart the main conversation, and he fulfils the role in both a dynamic and humorous way. At the same time, he manages to enhance and further premises set up by one of the others, through picking them up on their dumb ideas, foolish actions or linguistic mis-steps.
One of the things that strikes me listening to the podcast, having listened to all the seasons, is the honesty that courses through the show. All the ‘hosts’ are unafraid to reveal things about their lives that feel both personal and revelatory about themselves or their world-views. This candour is underplayed and deeply important to the show, allowing the foursome to discuss anything that comes into their heads, even when they don’t think they should, or it wouldn’t be considered good ‘radio.’ As Eddie says in one of his more quasi-philosophical moments: ‘whatever’s in your head, just let it go.’ Having four very separate lifestyles also means that they all bring something genuinely different to the show.
Eddie’s endless desire to both open the audience’s eyes, to be a pariah for causes, his deeply held beliefs and the suddenness of his changes of opinion perfectly contrasts against Sean’s general cynicism and ability to stay detached from an argument to reveal the craziness of the other’s opinions. This too, contrasts with Amber’s usual joyousness and positive mental attitude, and most keenly her youthful and hopeful view on life, which makes when she talks about the world in a negative way all the more involving. Last but not least though, Jamie’s quietness, the seeming dichotomy between his desire to both play the fool and fear of being taken seriously, his humour, the way he slowly, meticulously lays out his stories and ideas in a low-key, low impact way, that brings others in and others something outside the norm is critical to the show, and shines really well on himself.
The four work so well together and individually, the show could almost exist without guests, and yet the guests are of such caliber (including Paul F. Tompkins, Jen Kirkman and Marc Maron multiple times) that it’s tough to say you don’t want to hear them. They make an admirable attempt to avoid the slightly clusterfuck-y nature of podcast guesting, and reach outside the podcast world fairly often, which is refreshing to hear. It’s great to hear people like Jack McBrayer, Myq Kaplan or a Joe Wagner offering a sense of freshness and ideas that you haven’t heard on previous or other podcasts. But the key is that, much as the guests may be big personalities or famous peoples, they only enhance and rarely impede the flow of the show. I will admit that when I originally started listening to the podcast, I would avoid the guestless episodes, but I’ve come to really enjoy the ever improving dynamic, even when one of the members is away.
Much as it is sad that they rarely have interstitial sketches or songs anymore, the removal of this preparedness means they all put more into the improvised sketches. It also does seem to have removed a little of the show’s tension, and allowed the four’s chemistry to blossom in a really powerful way. And it’s great to have a podcast that has a different host combination than the usual ‘two or three guys talking’ format. Their considerably different personas meld together so delightfully now, it’s becoming harder and harder to wait a week between shows.
You can find the podcast on www.thelongshotpodcast.com, or over on the iTunes set up. On Facebook as the Long Shot Podcast; @longshotpodcast on twitter, or individually on the tweets as @jamieflam, @seanconroy, @amber_kenny and @eddiepepitone.