With a triumvirate of Daily Show writers (Dan McCoy, Elliott Kalan and Stuart Wellington), a bad movie and a bunch of dumb jokes, there’s not much you can’t enjoy about The Flop House. Unless you’re a cold hearted person who doesn’t like comedy, podcasts or movies. If you are that person then I’m honoured, if a little confused as to why and how, you’ve found your way to this review, and I hope you enjoy both it and the show!
There is a fairly basic, but usually true segmenting of all media creations, that some shows innovate, some shows revolutionise and some shows turn something good into something great. The Flop House has the semi-dubious blessing of being a combination of these three elements, as it is a podcast that has existed for almost six years (so it’s hardly jumped on a podcast bandwagon) but it also utilises a care-worn aesthetic in a way that is simply better, an improvement and a definite upgrade on most other movie review podcasts. Reviewing bad movies has been a colourful source of conversation for years of course, films growing in fame through their cult status as utter pieces of trash and the unifying power of conversation about these unequivocally bad movies being testament to this, but The Flop House seems to capture this in one of the exemplary manners in the podcast world. Overflowing with riffs, confusion and a cat, the show has a real fizz to it’s energy, a feeling of real newness and fresh ideas that rise it above the crowd of also-ran podcasts that have grown up and out of it’s shadow.
The Floppers Three: Dan, Stuart and Elliott!
As with so many great podcasts, what propels The Flop House above the mass is the chemistry of it’s hosts. That almost ineffable magic that gives the conversation a snap, an excitement and a delightful mix of shared ideas and difference of opinions. Dan McCoy is the more subdued and precise host, a character whose reputation ‘exceptional unexceptionality’ for me seems entirely exaggerated, he is rather more a host, a role where your specific requirement is to lie back a little more and poke your two more noticeable firecrackers into action, rearranging and adding in your own unique stupidity at moments of quiet. Elliott Kalan adds in the more classical joke lunatic type, a chap with a seemingly obsessive stomach for puns, which range wildly between the acutely brilliant and the painfully awkward, but always with a sumptuous relish and delight for their creation. Your final character is Stuart Wellington, the more brash and sparking element, someone whose mildly concerning fetishisation of ‘ding-dong rippings’ always lurks dangerously nearby, when not advocating for Castle Freak to really be given it’s due dividends. The trio mesh and clash in ways that are at once instantly recognisable and charmingly new, they work well with the traditional dynamic they have fallen into, using their years of experience and friendship to up the stakes and the comedy on a consistently hilarious and arresting basis.
A show that takes the norm, takes it up a notch and waits for others to catch up to it’s consistent excellence, The Flop House podcast is almost a must-have in your podcast listings, because it is, above all, pretty damn good.
You can find the show in iTunes of course, whilst they are also part of the All Things Comedy network, and can be found on flophousepodcast.com. You can also poke the hosts @ElliottKalan, @dankmccoy and I guess Stuart Wellington is over @flophousecat. Happy Holidays!