And so we reach the second semi final, to find who will face Walking the Room in our final next week! Will it be the triple hander of Scott Simpson, Merlin Mann and Adam Lisagor with the triumph ‘You Look Nice Today?’ Or the juggernaut Jimmy Pardo with his podcast beast ‘Never Not Funny?’ Find out below!
Jimmy Pardo, considering.
Execution: Strangely enough, these two shows greatest clash is their greatest strength. Both shows have a very specific atmosphere, Never Not Funny is powered by the Jimmy Pardo engine, who fires most egregiously and zappily for the first half an hour or so; whilst YLNT weaves it’s way between bits of social confusion, bits of life advice and just straight ‘bits’ throughout. Working off of the triumvirate dynamic, YLNT is a very settled, understated and understanding show, based off these three ageing nerds continuously strained life interactions. Whilst this sounds like a terrible set-up for some awful stand-up, their interaction as a three is so gleeful that they just meander past the cliches into much more tasty and unusual territory, interspersing stupidity with fascination in a brilliant and unexpected manner. Pardo, as an actual comedian, obviously has a slightly more refined version of this going on, with his imperious personality merrily leaping from disdain to embrace, throwing out thoroughly dumb jokes and strange seventies references at will. But you’d be a fool to dismiss Matt Belknap in all this, who has an infectious chirpiness and ever-increasing affinity with when and what quite makes a zinger, and his contributions have long not been the ‘clunkers’ deemed by some. Too, they have a guest roster which dovetails really well with the shows atmosphere, always happy to talk with a friend in a way which fits nicely with the ‘comedian party’ ideal. Begrudgingly though (only because I’d almost rather them share the point), I award this round to YLNT, simply because their shtick is slightly more evolved and co-operative than NNF’s.
Merlin, Scott and Adam. Also Road Monkey.
Ambition/Intention: In a sense, neither of these shows is particularly ambitious, both simply aiming to be as good a show as they can be. This makes it rather difficult to tell the two apart, but there are key differences in how they pursue these goals. NNF aims to be a ‘party conversation’ and has done a wonderful job of retaining this, in spite of the avenue many other popular podcasts make. They do make forays into ‘celebrity guests’ but most of these tend to be people on the level of Pardo, e.g. a Paul Reiser or a Conan O’Brien, so they are ready and able to fit straight into the show. It is also presumably Pardo’s friends who are the fan’s favourites in terms of guests as well, and the amount of shows that have his friends on is a joy to behold. YLNT has obviously much less flux, merely doing what it does, in an excellent way, being thoroughly brilliant from first minute to last. The sparseness of their content too, makes it if not both a greater luxury and joy for every minute it exists, at least greatly appreciated for it’s brilliance from start to finish. This round just de facto falls to NNF, simply because YLNT can only be the show it is, whilst NNF has conquered many hurdles it’s rivals fall to.
Pardo and Starchild (Pat Francis).
Consistency: Certainly, NNF is the far more productive show, producing around fifty episodes a year since it’s inception in 2006, whilst YLNT will only managed fifty four in their five year existence. Not to say that the quality of the second show isn’t excellent, but it is certainly less than overwhelming in it’s regularity or quantity. NNF and Jimmy Pardo have kept up a constantly great show, producing solid episodes without fail, investing in their listeners and having their listeners invest in them too. Whilst YLNT has made 53 (soon to be 54) perfect episodes, stretched over a lesser time period. Here is the question then, is it a greater achievement to be consistently great and occasionally brilliant over four hundred episodes, or to craft 54 joyous wonders? And after almost a day’s consideration, the honour goes to Never Not Funny, doing so much at such a level being such a humongous achievement.
And so it is that Never Not Funny wins out, valiantly victorious in this battle of giants, waiting to face Walking the Room in next weeks final. Until then, catch both shows, including You Look Nice Today’s upcoming finale on iTunes, or @ScottSimpson, @hotdogsladies, @lonelysandiwch and @