Featuring a man who plays the role of host and guest simultaneously, The Free Phil Hendrie Podcast is a complex beast, but one’s hilarity outweighs this by a significant margin. Clearly possessive of a smart comedy sensibility and a magnificent understanding of radio, Hendrie manages to play both host and guest concurrently, interviewing, contradicting and teasing himself before inviting callers to do the same. It’s a very impressive broadcast, and one I’m about to talk about at length.
One of the major reasons why the show is so great how fluently the interplay between his characters and himself, functioning exactly as a real guest would, in a way so fluid and borderless that it is directly indicative of years of practice. Hendrie displays a love of stupidity that twins with this perfectly pitched tension as to whether or not Hendrie knows exactly what he is going to say to himself. This obviously leads to many a hilarious line, such bon mots as ‘cucumbers can be cut up and put into salad,’ which functions as an amazing denoument to a character concerned about their sons sexuality. This adjacency to child-like play and silliness makes the show all the brighter and more excitable; clinging to a charm and joy that runs completely counter to the guests ever increasing madness. It also adds to the homespun, self-made ethos and atmosphere of the show that redoubles this adorability in the face of the variously ridiculous agendas proposed by the oppositional characters that play off Hendrie and his callers. Dovetailing in a wonderfully balanced manner, the show never delves too far into self-regard, or becomes too deeply enraptured in the roots of the characters, instead always focusing on what is hilarious, and combines the best parts of a very silly set up.
Hendrie’s ability to stay in character is another exemplary part of the show. The ability to combine being the show’s herald, and performing the interview, whilst answering his questions is very impressive. His unflinchingness and commitment to the characters make his clown-like visions almost like real people, blessed with the obscure but semi-realistic visions that often crop up on night-time radio. This is focused by the format of the podcast as opposed to that of the show. Segmenting the broadcast into chunks means that it can be released in a form that is very pure, forcing it to exist in even more of a sketch format, while also letting it be more digestible than it would be as a massive piece. To some this could be limiting, removing some of the grown ridiculousness that come from the constant necessity of Hendrie talking to himself, but it is also liberating. It means that only the prime cuts are freed and released, presenting the show in it’s greatest and best lights, making it something of a ‘greatest hits,’ but one with enough substance to make it more than a mere display of clips.
One of Phil Hendrie’s regulars, drawn
Another aspect that really shines through is Hendrie’s ability to toy with his callers. To be able to (if you’ll allow me to be very internet) ‘troll’ as both host and character is pretty much unmatched. Inevitably baited in by the variously crazed scenarios and perspectives of the ‘guests,’ the callers arrive with the best of intentions and an attempt at sanity, which only ramps up the characters baffling screeds before battering the victims into submission. But it is the ability with which Hendrie can rile up his callers, whilst at the same time not mocking them too openly, instead building them up and giving them a platform to speak from, for the sole purpose of his characters to be all the more maniacal. Rather than hosting callers who are just regulars who understand the bits, they instead seem to be people genuinely perturbed by the warped visions Hendrie’s guests portray, giving the show another great layer to it’s basis of quality and yet again highlighting the quality of Hendrie’s work, alongside the amount of practice, ability and talent that goes into the show.
Richly woven and constantly rewarding, this podcast is an elegant blend of what makes Hendrie a hilarious and talented fellow, readily dissected into tasty chunks. Phil Hendrie appears to be one of those hidden comedy gems that often manage to get squirreled away in the night-time of radio, so maybe the age of podcasting has come at the right time for him, attracting more listeners to his work and slowly bringing him the fans he deserves.
You can find the podcast on iTunes or www.philhendrieradio.com Or listen live on the same link. Hendrie is also on twitter @philhendireshow. Goodbye now!